Dominican journalists shot dead mid-broadcast

Unidentified attackers burst into the radio station and shot presenter reading the news on air

SANTO DOMINGO: Two journalists were shot dead during a live radio broadcast in the Dominican Republic, police and media said.

Unidentified attackers burst into the 103.5 FM studio as presenter Luis Manuel Medina was reading the news on air on Tuesday and shot him dead, station employees were quoted as saying by local media.

Moments before that the station's director Leonidas Martinez was killed in his office, they said.

In a video of the broadcast that was streamed on Facebook, gunfire is heard as Medina reads the news and a woman's voice is heard calling "Shots, shots!"



"Two people have died and one has been injured," national police spokesman William Alcantara told reporters. He identified the injured person as the station's secretary.

The attack occurred at the radio station's headquarters in San Pedro de Macoris, east of the capital Santo Domingo.

The Caribbean nation, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, is a popular beach destination for foreign tourists.

Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders says that journalists who tackle corruption and drug trafficking in the Dominican Republic often fall victim to attacks.