(Adds medical source saying fugitive killed)

By Noiselle Champagne

NOUAKCHOTT, April 7 (Reuters) - Mauritanian police fought suspected Islamist gunmen on Monday, and a medical source said an escaped al Qaeda suspect accused of killing four French tourists last December was killed in the clashes.

A Reuters reporter saw scores of police and gendarmerie officers, some with assault rifles, others wielding heavier guns mounted on vehicles, on a road leading north out of the capital Nouakchott as shots rang out after dark on Monday.

"It's a clash with the Salafists (Islamists)," said a gendarmerie colonel at the scene.

Security services in the city launched a manhunt last week for Sidi Ould Sidna, who escaped from police at the city's main law courts last Wednesday after requesting he be left alone to pray.

Sidna, 20, is accused of murdering four French tourists as they enjoyed a Christmas Eve picnic by a roadside in southern Mauritania, one of several attacks in recent months which have fuelled fears al Qaeda cells in Algeria and Morocco are moving operations further south.

A medical source told Reuters Sidna had been killed in the shootout, while police and medical sources said one policeman was also killed.

"A police inspector, commander of the Company One, was killed this evening during the assault against the Salafists," said one police officer.

Soldiers fired warning shots in the air outside Nouakchott's National Hospital where guards struggled to hold back crowds trying to see who was injured.

Near the scene of the shootout, residents poured out of their homes to watch the drama unfold, some trying to snatch photos of police with their mobile phones.

Sidna's escape was a major embarrassment to the West African country. Authorities quickly suspended officials connected with the case and took the investigating magistrate, who conducted a hearing with Sidna just before he escaped, off the case.

Impoverished Mauritania has tried to reassure tourists, especially from former colonial ruler France, in the hope of preserving a niche but lucrative industry that brings in much-needed hard currency to the largely desert country.

But the annual Dakar rally, which was due to pass through Mauritania in January, was cancelled for the first time in its 30-year history after the event's French organisers received threats from "terrorist organisations". (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com) (Writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Caroline Drees)

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