Fashion designer Versace shot dead 

Steps of the Miami Beach mansion of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, where he was shot dead. Photograph: Gregory Smith/AP

The fashion guru and tycoon Gianni Versace, founder of one of haute couture\'s most flamboyant and renowned empires, was shot dead outside his villa in Miami Beach yesterday morning in what police believe was a carefully planned murder.

The chief of Miami Beach police, Richard Barreto, said: "I believe that he was targeted," but refused to confirm a rumour that a contract had been put out on Versace\'s life.

By last night, the FBI had launched a huge manhunt for the killer, a white male in his twenties who walked up and shot Versace twice in the head at point-blank range. The designer was opening the gate to the villa after returning from buying an Italian newspaper at a favourite local restaurant, the News Cafe.

Only days ago, Versace, aged 50, was being showered with praise for his latest collection at the Paris show, acknowledging applause from the catwalk flanked by supermodels.

Yesterday, there were pools of blood on the pavement outside his elegant villa after the shooting at 9am.

Mr Barreto indicated that the handgun used in the murder had been sent for examination. Asked if there was anyone else in the villa at the time of the murder, he said: "My information is that he was alone." He refused to comment on a local rumour that there had been an unspecified "incident" involving Versace outside his home two nights ago.

An eyewitness, Eddie Biachi, said: "There were two shots fired in his head. The police came very fast; they were trying to help him, revive him."

A surgeon, Phillip Villanueva, said Versace had been shot in the back of the head.

Al Boza, a police spokesman, said Versace had been opening the gate to his home on Ocean Drive when he was approached by a "white male, aged about 25, wearing a grey T-shirt, black backpack and black shorts, and a white hat ... who shot him at point-blank range".

Local television reports said the man\'s clothing had been dumped in a nearby garage and had been recovered for analysis by police.

Witnesses said the killer got into a vehicle which looked like a taxi. The driver has not been found.

There were three theories last night: a killing by a jealous, obsessed maniac; a contract killing, either the result of a love affair or professional relationship turned sour; or by the Mafia or some other criminal mob.

There had been no sign of any overt threat to Versace, at least none that was recorded by police in the United States or Italy.

The nature of the murder suggests that the killer either knew Versace personally or had "staked him out".

Versace, the first of Italy\'s leading designers to confirm that he was gay, went into the fashion business 25 years ago, setting up his own house with his sister Donatella. There had been tensions recently over succession within the vast company.

Despite becoming more reclusive, Versace was a popular figure on the social circuit of Ocean Drive\'s "beautiful people" and entertained his friends frequently and in style.

His elegant, three-storey mock-Spanish villa was a landmark on the fashion circuit, although in a quiet stretch of Ocean Drive, away from the hotels and the famous Art Deco strip.

Versace had clothed the world\'s best-known women, including Princess Diana, who "relaunched" herself recently as a glamour queen in Vanity Fair magazine wearing a dress from his latest collection. She said yesterday she was "devastated" by the news of his death.

In Versace\'s native Italy, the news provoked disbelief and concern over what could emerge from the police inquiry. The Milan fashion business is pivotal to the success of one of the world\'s biggest textile industries and its good name has been sullied twice recently.

Last May, Versace\'s brother, Santo, was convicted of bribery along with two of Italy\'s leading designers. In 1995, Maurizio Gucci, of the luggage-to-frocks luxury goods dynasty, was shot dead outside his office in Milan. His wife, Patrizia Reggiani Martinelli, was arrested and charged with ordering his murder earlier this year. As Versace acknowledged in an interview two years ago, there have been rumours - vigorously denied by the family - that the company founded to market his creations had underworld links. In 1995, the Independent on Sunday paid substantial damages for what it admitted were libels about his business practices.

Yesterday, many Italians noted privately that the shots to the back of Versace\'s neck were typical of an underworld hit.

Fellow designers expressed incredulity. "The news of Gianni Versace\'s death has left me in a state of shock," said Giorgio Armani. "My reaction is one of revolt against such an unnatural and violent death."

Versace\'s murderer, Andrew Cunanan, shot himself in the head when cornered by Miami police in a houseboat three miles from the murder scene. The gun he used was the same he shot Versace with eight days earlier. He had killed four other men in a killing spree which had started in April 1997.

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