Michael Hastings dead: Top journalist and war correspondent killed in car crash at the age of 33

War correspondent Michael Hastings has died in a car crash in Los Angeles at the age 33, his employer, news website BuzzFeed, has confirmed.

The journalist’s vehicle hit a tree and caught fire on Tuesday morning, US media report.

Michael Hastings was best known for his award-winning profile in Rolling Stone magazine of ex-US Afghanistan commander General Stanley McChrystal.

General Stanley McChrystal was dismissed after he openly criticized President Barack Obama in the story.

The military leader later quipped about the incident, telling military staff during his Pentagon farewell address: “I have stories on all of you, photos of many, and I know a Rolling Stone reporter.”

The accident which killed Michael Hastings is thought to have occurred on Highland Avenue in the Hancock Park neighborhood.

Authorities confirmed a man had been killed in a car crash there on Tuesday morning, but would not confirm his identity.

BuzzFeed‘s editor-in-chief, Ben Smith, said he had learnt the news from a family member.

“We are shocked and devastated by the news that Michael Hastings is gone,” Ben Smith said.

“Michael was a great, fearless journalist with an incredible instinct for the story, and a gift for finding ways to make his readers care about anything he covered from wars to politicians.”

At the time of his death, Michael Hastings was also still a contributing editor at Rolling Stone.

“I’m sad that I’ll never get to publish all the great stories that he was going to write, and sad that he won’t be stopping by my office for any more short visits which would stretch for two or three completely engrossing hours,” the magazine’s managing editor Will Dana said.

Michael Hastings began his career at Newsweek magazine in 2002, and was named the publication’s Baghdad correspondent in 2005.

Michael Hastings’ work has also appeared in The Washington Post, the LA Times and numerous publications.