A Mexican journalist who reported on violent crime has been killed while under police protection, reports the BBC.

Unknown gunmen shot Alejandro Martinez as he was travelling in a car with two security guards in the central state of Guanajuato.

Martinez died in hospital from the bullet wounds he sustained in the attack.

Martinez, who was in his 50s, ran a popular news outlet on Facebook, which has more than 340,000 followers.

He had been under police protection after surviving a similar attack on his life in 2022.

Local authorities said the attackers opened fire from a pickup truck on the car carrying the journalist and his bodyguards.

Police sources told AFP news agency that the bodyguards returned fire but could not save the reporter, who was hit by a bullet in the head.

Alejandro Martinez had been assigned bodyguards under a federal program for reporters who receive death threats, a government official said.