This is the chilling moment a professional female tennis player was shot dead by her Vietnamese boyfriend before he fled to Thailand.

Phonenida Meksavanh, 33, was having dinner with Hungmyanh Levan, 58, when he pulled out a handgun and shot her in the chest at her restaurant in Savvanakhet, Laos, on December 9.

Shocking surveillance footage shows grey-haired Hungmyanh aiming the firearm at Phonenida, a pro tennis player and former beauty pageant winner, before pulling the trigger.

The mother-of-one slumped onto the table as blood gushed from her wound.

Hungmyanh was seen casually walking away before staff and passers-by ran into the restaurant to tend to her. They wrested the gun from her boyfriend's hand but were unable to stop him from escaping.

Horrified staff cradled the injured Phonenida and called for an ambulance. However, she succumbed to the injury while the alleged killer disappeared from the area.

Police in Laos are now working with cops in Thailand to track Hungmyanh, who is believed to have fled across the border.

Devastated friend Sunya, a waitress at the restaurant, said: 'It was very quiet at the time and I didn't pay any attention to the boss and her boyfriend. They were just talking and I thought her boyfriend was getting angry, so I tried to ignore it and carry on working.

'Then I heard the sound of the gun and was so scared so I crouched down. Then I ran over to Phonenida when I saw she was hurt.

'Everybody is shocked and so sad. We all went to her funeral.

'Phonenida loved her restaurant and she loved tennis and teaching children how to play. Everybody loved Phonenida because she had won gold medals for Laos.'

Savannakhet police officers said in a report that Houng had fled in a red car that arrived to pick him up. Authorities believe he crossed the border by road into the Thai province of Mukdahan.

Police said Houng had often visited Thailand, where his ex-wife, children, and friends lived. They said he stopped visiting them when he began dating Phonenida, who is 25 years his junior, earlier this year.

The pretty athlete, who has won medals for tennis in Communist Laos, ran a 'tennis court restaurant' in Savannakhet. She also took part in the Miss Laos 2011 beauty pageant, where she won the 'Miss Friendship' title.

Lao police were coordinating with Thai officials and immigration officers for the arrest of Houng, who was still at large.

A Mukdahan provincial police spokesman said today that investigators are checking border cross points and CCTV to trace the suspect.

They added: 'We have intelligence on the suspect. He has connections in Thailand and has visited regularly in the past. Officers are reviewing CCTV cameras to trace his movements so that he can be arrested and returned to Laos.'

Phonenida won gold, two silver and bronze medals at the South East Asia Games in 2009 in Vientiane, Laos. She had also competed in and won dozens of other tennis tournaments across Asia.

She opened her tennis court restaurant around two years ago and had also began coaching tennis to under privileged children in the impoverished country, which is still recovering from being bombed by the warmongering United States during its failed invasion of Vietnam.