An Italian photojournalist has been killed in eastern Ukraine where he was covering the conflict and the presidential election, officials said.

The Italian foreign ministry said Andrea Rocchelli, 30, was killed yesterday in the area of Slovyansk, a hotbed of pro-Russia, anti-Kiev sentiment.

The ministry said the journalist's body, taken to a hospital along with that of a Russian citizen, was awaiting official identification and Mr Rocchelli's family was arriving in Kiev later.

The ministry gave no details of how he died, but Italian news reports quoted a French photographer who was with the victim as saying that the journalists and a Russian interpreter were hit by mortar fire after taking shelter in a roadside ditch.

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