Mexican police commander killed

It is likely that he was targeted by drug cartels who are battling the authorities over a clamp down on their drug smuggling operations.

Igor Labastida was eating lunch in a restaurant when he was killed.

Eyewitnesses say two people got out of a car, went into the restaurant and opened fire on him and his escorts.

Mr Labastida, who headed the anti-trafficking and contraband division of the Mexican federal police force, died along with a body guard.

Around 400 law enforcement officers have now been killed in Mexico so far this year.

Last month gunmen shot dead the acting director of the country's federal police force.

In other cities police officers have resigned or sought asylum in the United States after receiving threats.

In all nearly 1,500 people have been murdered since January. In one city alone, Juarez, just across the border from the United States, more than 40 people have been killed since the weekend.

A Mexican police chief and three bodyguards were shot to death as they ate lunch in Mexico City on Thursday, the latest police slaying in a drug war that has killed more than 1,600 people this year.

Heavily armed gunmen burst into a restaurant in the north of the capital and shot Igor Labastida, a regional director for trafficking and contraband in Mexico's federal police force, and the bodyguards, a police spokesman said.

"Several men opened fire on the four members of the federal police who were eating there. They all died," said the spokesman, who declined to be named.

He said one bodyguard was a woman.