San Giustino (ITALY) Oct 15 (IANS/AKI) An unemployed 28-year-old man shot his ex-girlfriend dead in central Italy early Tuesday after she left him.
He then committed suicide with the same semi-automatic pistol, police said.
The 26-year-old woman was shot in the head and chest when she opened the door of her apartment in the Umbrian town of San Giustino after her ex-boyfriend rang the bell around 1 a.m.
Police had to enter the apartment by climbing on to a balcony and forcing open a window.
They found the man still alive but he died before arriving at a local hospital's emergency room.
"I cannot accept that we are no longer together," the man had written in a letter recovered from his apartment by police.
The man, a former soldier, and his ex-girlfriend, who worked as a cleaner in a local pub, were described by those who knew them as "normal people without any particular problems".
The woman had ended their relationship several months ago.
A woman is murdered every few days in Italy, most often by an ex-partner.
--IANS/AKI
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