[Al Arabiya Latest] The chief of Algeria's national police was shot dead on Thursday at his headquarters by another police official who was acting in a moment of insanity, the Interior Ministry said."The death of Ali Tounsi ... took place during a working session, in the course of which a police official, apparently gripped by an attack of madness, used his weapon and fatally wounded Colonel Tounsi," state radio quoted a ministry statement as saying.
"A judicial enquiry has been opened to determine the circumstances of this distressing event," the statement said.
There was no indication of any link between Tounsi's killing and al-Qaeda insurgents who periodically attack government targets in Algeria, a major oil and gas exporter.
The police force headed by Tounsi has played an important role in the effort to stamp out the long-running insurgency by Islamist militants.
Earlier, a security source told Reuters that Tounsi, national police chief for more than a decade and a veteran of Algeria's war of independence from France in the 1950s and 1960s, was shot inside his office by a senior police official with whom he was having an argument.
"This guy was unhappy, he took out his pistol and he fired it," the source said. "Police officers nearby fired back."
The Interior Ministry statement said that after shooting the police chief, the attacker shot himself and was now in serious condition in hospital. It made no mention of police firing back.
It was unlikely that Tounsi's killing would be a significant set-back for the government's counter-insurgency, which has been successful in reducing the rebellion to a hardcore of a few hundred fighters.
The police share responsibility for combating the insurgents with the gendarmerie, or paramilitary police, and the intelligence services and army.
"Tounsi's death is a big loss but it won't have any impact on the fight against terrorism," an official source familiar with security issues told Reuters.
"The fight against terror is not conducted by one person but by all of Algeria's institutions."