Tegucigalpa, March 16 (IANS/EFE) Honduran journalist Nahum Palacios was murdered in the northeastern city of Tocoa, becoming the third media professional to die violently in the Central American country over the past two weeks, police said.

The killing occurred around 10.30 p.m. Sunday when Palacios, 36, was driving to his home in the Los Pinos neighbourhood, police spokesperson Leonel Sauceda told reporters Monday.

Palacios worked for Radio Tocoa and a television channel serving the province of Colon.

Several men travelling in two vehicles intercepted Palacios and opened fire, according to the police report.

Sauceda said that Palacios's automobile was hit by 42 bullets and that, so far, police have 'no hypothesis' regarding the motive for the killing.

Last Thursday, David Meza, a correspondent for Tegucigalpa-based Radio America assigned to the Caribbean port city of La Ceiba, was shot to death.

On March 1, another reporter, Joseph Hernandez, died in an attack on his colleague Carol Cabrera, the host of controversial radio and television programmes in the capital who supported last June's coup against then president Mel Zelaya.

Cabrera, who is receiving medical treatment at the Military Hospital in Tegucigalpa, was injured only slightly in the attack, while Hernandez, who was driving the woman to her home, was riddled with bullets. The police still have no clues as to the identities of the murderers.

In protest over Meza's death, dozens of reporters and journalism students in San Pedro Sula and other cities in northern Honduras marched Monday to demand respect for the press throughout the country.

The demonstrators marched down a central avenue in San Pedro Sula, Honduras's second city and the country's business hub.