Russian ex-spy gunned down

Unknown assailants have gunned down a former top Russian intelligence official in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported.

Colonel General Anatoly Trofimov, former deputy chief of the Federal Security Service under President Boris Yeltsin, was shot in his sports utility vehicle.

The assailants, armed with automatic weapons, fired from a small car, the Itar-Tass news agency said. Ekho Moskvy radio said the attack may have been a contract killing related to unspecified business deals.

Trofimov was fired by Yeltsin in 1997 after an examination by federal accountants.