AKIPRESS.COM - The head of New York's Gambino crime family, Frank Cali, has been killed outside his home, the city's police have told US media.

Cali, 53, was shot several times outside his home in Staten Island on Wednesday evening and died later in hospital.

The unidentified killer fled the scene in a blue car, witnesses said.

New York media say it is the first targeted killing of a mob boss in the city since 1985.

The Gambino crime operation is one of the five historic Italian-US Mafia families in New York.