VANCOUVER, December 31 (RIA Novosti) - A Canadian journalist and four military servicemen were killed in a blast in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, Canwest News Service (CNS) reported.

The news agency reported that Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang, 34, was travelling with a provincial reconstruction team to Kandahar City, when an armored vehicle she was riding ran into an explosive device.

Lang is the first Canadian journalist to die in Afghanistan since Canada joined international anti-terrorism operation in the country in 2002. She arrived in the country on December 11 and was scheduled to return to Calgary on January 22.

Canada's Department of Defense has not yet revealed the names of the four soldiers killed in the explosion, but their deaths add to 134 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002.