An Afghan police officer has shot at two female journalists working for The Associated Press, killing one and seriously wounding the other, a local official says.

"Anja Niedringhaus, a German photographer, and Kathy Gannon, a Canadian reporter, working for the AP were shot by a police officer at 11.00am (1730 AEDT) in Tanai district," said Baryalay Rawan, a police official from the Khost province where the incident happened.

He said Niedringhaus died on the spot and Gannon was seriously wounded and taken to hospital.

"Two female journalists were shot this morning inside a district police headquarters, one has been killed, while the other is seriously wounded," Khost provincial spokesman Mobarez Mohammad Zadran told AFP.

Zadran and deputy Khost police chief Yaqub Mandozai said the gunman was wearing police uniform.

The woman is the second Western journalist killed in Afghanistan during the election campaign, after Swedish journalist Nils Horner was shot dead in Kabul on March 11.

AFP's senior Afghan reporter Sardar Ahmad, his wife and two of his three children were killed on March 20 when gunmen smuggled pistols into Kabul's high-security Serena hotel and shot dead nine people including four foreigners.

The attack took place on the eve of a presidential election.

Source: aap