An amateur footballer enraged by getting a red card in Argentina fetched a gun and fatally shot the referee on the pitch, police said Tuesday.

Cesar Flores, 48, was refereeing a match between local youth teams in the central city of Cordoba when he sent off the player for a foul.

The football pitch where the ref was killed

The youth took a revolver from among his belongings, went back on the pitch and shot Flores several times, a police source told AFP.

The referee died later in hospital, the source said. The killer fled and was being hunted by police.