The husband of a former reporter for The Argus has been shot dead in Saudi Arabia.

Irish freelance cameraman Simon Cumbers, 36, was filming for the BBC in the capital, Riyadh.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner was seriously wounded in the attack.

Louise Bevan, a journalist on The Argus in the Eighties, was expected to fly to Riyadh later this week.

Her parents, who live in Portslade, were too upset to talk. A family friend said: "Louise is devastated. They were fantastic together and both families are wonderful."

Ms Bevan and Mr Cumbers, who ran Locum Productions, a TV news and production company, married in 1996.

The shooting happened as Mr Cumbers and Mr Gardner were filming a report on the fear among foreign workers in Saudi a week after a terror attack killed 22 people.

One of the dead was oil industry executive Michael Hamilton, 62, who was planning to retire with his wife Penelope to their home in Rye.

The BBC was sending a team to Saudi to investigate the latest shooting. Richard Sambrook, director of news, said: "We are trying to establish what took place."

As a freelance Mr Cumber, from County Meath, in the Irish Republic, worked throughout the world for the BBC, Associated Press Television and ITN.