San Giustino (ITALY) Oct 15 (IANS) An unemployed 28-year-old man shot his ex-girlfriend dead in central Italy early Tuesday after she left him.

He then committed suicide with the same semi-automatic pistol, police said.

The 26-year-old woman was shot in the head and chest when she opened the door of her apartment in the Umbrian town of San Giustino after her ex-boyfriend rang the bell around 1 a.m.

Police had to enter the apartment by climbing on to a balcony and forcing open a window.

They found the man still alive but he died before arriving at a local hospital's emergency room.

"I cannot accept that we are no longer together," the man had written in a letter recovered from his apartment by police.

The man, a former soldier, and his ex-girlfriend, who worked as a cleaner in a local pub, were described by those who knew them as "normal people without any particular problems".

The woman had ended their relationship several months ago.

A woman is murdered every few days in Italy, most often by an ex-partner.