NEW YORK: New York`s mayor insisted the hunt for the man believed to have gunned down a top health insurance executive was `on the right track` as the investigation dragged into a third day on Friday.

Investigators secured a breakthrough on Thursday when they released the first full-face picture of a suspect without a covering like that worn during Wednesday`s brazen daylight slaying.

`This person was fully masked, and we used good old-fashioned police work to come up with the picture you have,` mayor Eric Adams told the Spectrum broadcaster.The image of the smiling suspect was obtained from a youth hostel where the gunman apparently stayed before the hit, detectives said, with media speculating he lowered his mask to flirt with a receptionist.

The gunman sprayed Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare-one of the country`s largest medical insurers, with bullets in front of bystanders, in an audacious hit captured by a surveillance camera and now seen by millions.

Thompson was attendinganinvestorconference in the Midtown business district.-AFP