Escobar's aide killed in raid

(First Edition)

MEDELLIN (AFP) - Brance Munoz Mosquera, regarded as the right-hand man of the Colombian drug baron, Pablo Escobar, was killed in a shootout with police in Medellin. Police and troops were placed on full alert in case of reprisals.

Munoz was shot dead when anti-drug police stormed a house in the Fatima district of the city after an anonymous telephone tip-off.

Munoz is held responsible for a bombing attack on a Colombian airliner in November 1989 that left 107 people dead, and an attack on secret police headquarters in Bogota in which 64 people were killed.

The authorities are hoping that others will be encouraged to come forward with information on Escobar, who has a price of dollars 3.7m on his head. He escaped from prison near Medellin in July.