Hunter Thompson commits suicide

American counterculture writer and 1960s icon Hunter S Thompson shot himself at his home in Colorado, report agencies. He was 67.

His body was found by his son, Juan.

Thompson, 'is best-known for his 1972 account of a drug-addled Nevada trip, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Other books are Hells Angels and Generation of Swine,' said the BBC.

'Thompson was associated with the "New Journalism" movement of the 1960s,

in which writers took a more novelistic and personal approach to their subjects,' said CNN.

'He pioneered "gonzo journalism", a factual style in which the writer was an essential part of the story, and was an acute observer of American life.'

"Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News.