Zagreb  - Prime Minister Ivo Sanader fired two of his ministers and the police chief in the wake of the latest mafia-style slaying in Croatia, but was still facing nationwide outrage on Tuesday.

A killer, armed with a pistol equipped with a silencer, shot dead Ivana Hodak, 28, daughter of politically prominent parents, in her apartment and then fled. The murder took place in a building in downtown Zagreb, barely 100 metres from police headquarters.

As many times before, a massive manhunt was launched, involving police barricades, commandos with automatic rifles on display and the questioning of some 30 people - but in the end, no arrests.

Late Monday, Sanader announced the sacking of Interior Minister Berislav Roncevic and Justice Minister Ana Lovrin as well as the chief of police.

Sanader vowed: "We will tolerate organized crime and Mafia killings no more."

He said the sackings were not a consequence of the Hodak killing, but was aimed to "bring more determination in the fight against crime than what was shown so far."

However, his "so far" means 66 unresolved murders in Zagreb alone, of which all but one were of criminals. Ivana Hodak is only the second victim without a criminal record.

"We don't want the prime minister to say 'it's time for war on mafia' after 66 murders" are some of the messages circulating on the internet and in media and calling for protest demonstrations in Croatian cities on Tuesday evening.

Police did not speculate on the motive of the Hodak killing, but media say that Ivana, herself a lawyer and also an attractive celebrity living a fast life, may have been caught between two powerful clans in a deadly feud.

Her mother, Ljerka Mintas Hodak, was a deputy premier in the 1990s. Her father Zvonimir is the attorney of former general Vladimir Zagorec, whom Austria extradited to Croatia last week to stand trial for the alleged embezzlement running into millions of dollars.

Her boyfriend was Ljubo Pavasovic Viskovic, another lawyer who defended the country's top underworld boss, Hrvoje Petrac, who is serving a prison sentence for the kidnapping of Zagorec's son.

There was also speculation that the murder was a message to authorities, including Sanader and President Stjepan Mesic, that their families are not safe in case the Zagorec trial threatens to expose crime tycoons.

The hit job on Ivana Hodak, apparently carried out by a professional killer, however did shock Croatia into the realization that criminals feel unchallenged.

"Such a killing is a precedent in the region - nobody in the underworld has killed anybody's child before. It has happened in Russia, Israel, Sicily and South America," Jutarnji List said in an article on mafia-style assassinations around the globe.

"With it, the Croatian underworld took the lead in this part of the world," the newspaper said, echoing the sentiment on the streets, that organized crime is stronger than the state.

"Each country has its mafia, but here the mafia has its own country," on letter to the editor said in Tuesday's newspapers. (dpa)