BOSSASO, Somalia (Reuters) - A gunman has shot dead a local politician in the northern Somalia's Puntland, the latest political to rock the semi-autonomous region.

Witness Nor Abdulle said legislator Mohamed Abdi Daqare was attacked in a street in the port of Bossaso on Tuesday night.

"An armed man shot the M.P. in the head. Armed police sealed off the area and arrested the shooter," Abdulle told Reuters.

A relative of the politician separately said Daqare had later died in hospital from head wounds.

Puntland has been relatively stable compared with the rest of the chaotic Horn of Africa nation. But insecurity has increased in recent months in the region, which is also a base for pirates who threaten shipping off the Somali coast.

Experts say the area is also home to organised criminals, including currency counterfeiters and human traffickers.

In early January another legislator was shot dead, while in separate incidents in November, a legislator and a judge who had jailed pirates and hardline rebels were also assassinated.