One man was killed and a police officer wounded in a gun battle on December 13 2009 on the Trakiya motorway near the interchange with Vakarel, the Interior Ministry said in a media statement on December 14 2009.

The dead man has been named as Dimitar "Bogorovetsa" Mitrev a man with a notorious criminal past. Mitrev and his gang were engaged in a firefight with police after they were intercepted robbing a Turkish citizen on the Trakia motorway.

Equipped with police uniforms - complete with insignia, sidearms, automatic weapons and a vehicle disguised as a patrol car - they would pull over motorists under the pretext of conducting routine checks and then rob them.

When a real police patrol arrived on the scene, having received a distress signal from a Turkish motorist who claimed to have been kidnapped, the officers were fired at with automatic weapons, Dnevnik daily said. The culprits were wearing police uniforms and vests and were armed with sub-machine guns. In the ensuing exchange of fire, Mitrev (38), was killed by police.

His accomplices, believed by the authorities to be the brothers Emil and Evgeni Milevi, made a run for nearby fields and are still being hunted by the authorities.

All three men are well known to the police and had been arrested previously for similar crimes. The dead man had a criminal record encompassing armed robbery as well as possession of illegal firearms, ammunition and drugs, reports say.

Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov and chief secretary Kalin Georgiev visited the site of the incident. Reportedly, one police officer was wounded.