Yesterday, after Dando, 37, was killed in broad daylight by a single gunshot to the head, fellow journalists at the BBC were receiving condolence messages, one every two seconds -- the second biggest outpouring of public grief in the country after Diana's death.

Dando, one of Britain's best known broadcasters, was murdered on the doorstep of her home in South-West London yesterday. Police say that her murder could be the work of a hit-man or a stalker.

Dando, who came to the BBC via the traditional route, having first worked for a local newspaper in her hometown Weston-Super-Mare, anchored the BBC's monthly Crimewatch programme which helps track down criminals, staging reconstructions of unsolved crimes and asking viewers to ring in if they have information.

Dando's was a familiar face in India too as her weekly travel magazine Holiday isaired there too. She was also a regular newsreader on BBC's Six O'Clock slot, and recently, the first episode of a new antiques show she presented was broadcast.

Neighbours, who came out when they heard a scream to find Dando lying in a pool of blood, said they saw a tall, well-dressed White man walking away down the street. Police say that so far, all clues point to the unidentified dark-haired man, in his late thirties or forties, wearing a Barbour-style raincoat and carrying a mobile phone.

Tributes for Dando, from Prime Minister Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth to hundreds of thousands of ordinary Britons are still pouring into the BBC.

At the BBC, Martyn Lewis, a colleague on the Six O'Clock News, announcing her death, said, ``Bewilderment, tears and quiet anger fill the BBC newsroom today.'' Nick Ross, her co-presenter on Crimewatch, said: ``It's just so terrible. She was a smashing person. You could not say anything bad about her.''

The Mirror newspaper quoted a police sourceas saying that the murder had ``all the hallmarks of a contract killing''. Police are also said to be exploring the possibility that Dando may have been killed by a stalker.

Last year, she admitted she had been pestered by a fanatic and was scared for her personal safety. Scotland Yard is said to be studying hundreds of Crimewatch tapes for possible clues to her murder.

At a reception to mark the 10th anniversary of Crimewatch, Dando had said that she was more concerned about her personal safety since becoming a co-presenter of the programme. She told one interviewer: ``It upsets me that there are such brutal people. I take great care over home security and about walking home in the dark. But I also know that crimes are very rare.''

Dando was engaged to a London gynaecologist Alan Farthing and was set to marry him this autumn.