Pim Fortuyn, an openly gay right-wing politician known for his anti-immigrant views, was shot dead by a lone gunman on Monday, nine days before national elections, the BBC reports.

Police said they arrested a suspect whom they described as a "white man of Dutch nationality," but had not established an identity or a motive.

Eyewitnesses say the gunman approached Fortuyn's chauffeur-driven car outside the Dutch television studio where an interview had just been recorded.

The 53-year-old was shot at least six times in the head, chest, and neck outside a building in the Media Park district in the town of Hilversum, about 12 miles southeast of Amsterdam. He had recently expressed his concern that he had received death threats by phone and in writing.

Fortuyn's death immediately caused a halt to campaigning. The hugely controversial politician stunned Dutch political analysts by capturing 17 of 45 council seats in Rotterdam's municipal elections last March. Fortuyn's aggressive nationalist and anti-immigration party was expected to come into a position of national power.

The controversial politician who was widely dismissed until early year blamed breakdown in law and order on immigration from Turkey, Morocco, Suriname and Tunisia.

"The country is full up," he said recently. "We have to slow down and take stock." He suggested closing the door to immigrants and giving the country the chance to integrate newcomers into their adopted home. He said immigrants must learn the language, get to work and integrate.

"In Rotterdam we have third generation Moroccans who still don't speak Dutch, oppress women and won't live by our values."

On the campaign trail, Fortuyn stirred fiery debate by calling Islam a "backward" culture, intolerant of homosexuality and which made women into second-class citizens.

"For Muslims as a homosexual, I am less than a pig," he said. Muslim religious leaders have commonly referred to homosexuals as pigs and Muslims find the hoofed animals so unclean that they are forbidden to eat or touch them.

He also suggested a ban on Muslim immigration and urged Muslim women to throw away their headscarves.

Fortuyn's platform seemed out of place in the country, well known for its liberal attitudes. The Netherlands was the first country to legalise same-sex marriages, approve and control euthanasia, regulate prostitution and over-the-counter sale of marijuana.