A female employee of Cairo University has been shot dead by a former co-worker in what Egyptian media are calling the latest gender-based killing.

Nourhan Hussein is reported to have rejected a marriage proposal from the suspect.

The man was later tracked down to an area west of the capital where he is said to have killed himself with the same weapon used in the murder.

In a separate incident in Cairo earlier this week another woman was killed by a former fiancé.

Rights groups say there were more than a thousand cases of violence against women in Egypt last year, including three hundred murders.