ALGIERS, (Reuters) – The chief of Algeria’s national  police was shot dead during a meeting at his headquarters yesterday when a fellow officer fired his pistol in a fit of  insanity, the Interior Ministry said.

There was no indication of any link between the killing of  veteran police chief Ali Tounsi and al Qaeda insurgents who  periodically attack government targets in Algeria, a major oil  and gas exporter.

“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.

The police force commanded by Tounsi has played an important  role in the Algerian government’s 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.”

Another security source said the attacker had earlier been  dismissed from his job by Tounsi, and was remonstrating with the  police chief about the decision when he fired his weapon.