Sunday Times' Marie Colvin Dies in Homs Shelling

Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin has been killed in the besieged city of Homs in Syria along with a French photographer, Reuters has reported.

US-born Marie Colvin, the only British newspaper correspondent in the city, and Remi Ochlik, a French photographer, were killed by a shell that hit the building in which they were staying.

In her last report from Homs, which has been under siege by President Bashar al-Assad's forces since 4 February, she said: "We live in fear of a massacre.

"Almost every building is pock-marked after tank rounds punched through concrete walls or rockets blasted gaping holes in upper floors," she reported.

"The building I was staying in lost its upper floor to a rocket last Wednesday. On some streets whole buildings have collapsed - all there is to see are shredded clothes, broken pots and the shattered furniture of families destroyed."

"The scale of human tragedy in the city is immense," she continued. "The inhabitants are living in terror. Almost every family seems to have suffered the death or injury of a loved one."

Activist Omar Shaker told the AFP news agency that the two were killed when a shell crashed into a media centre set up by anti-regime activists in Baba Amr district.

Other foreign journalists were wounded, he said.

A British freelance photographer, Paul Conroy, was injured in the same attack, but initial reports suggest he is not seriously hurt.

Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corporation, which owns the Sunday Times, said: "We are doing all we can in the face of shelling and sniper fire to get him to safety and to recover Marie's body."

Activists say a number of other local journalists and activists were killed and injured in the attack, taking the death toll today to over 13.

Colvin lost an eye to shrapnel while she was in Sri Lanka in 2001.

Sunday Times' Marie Colvins' Death Spurs Twitter Tributes

Marie Colvin: 'Why War Reporting is Important'