Coroner: BBC cameraman 'unlawfully killed'

LONDON, April 18 (UPI) -- A London coroner concluded Tuesday that a BBC cameraman shot in Saudi Arabia was "unlawfully killed."

Simon Cumbers, BBC correspondent Frank Gardner and a government minder were in a suburb of Riyadh known as a militant stronghold in June 2004 when they were attacked by gunmen. Gardner was wounded and Cumbers killed.

Coroner Alison Thompson found a strong possibility that the news team were the victims of "an opportunistic attack," the BBC reported.

Cumbers, a native of County Meath in Ireland, worked as a radio reporter there and as a television correspondent for ITN before becoming a cameraman. At the time of his death, he had set up his own company, Locum Productions.