AN off-duty Russian police chief went on a killing spree at a Moscow shop, leaving three people dead and at least six injured, Russian news agencies reported.

Moscow's "Chessboard killer" was formally sentenced to life imprisonment today ending one of Russia's worst serial killer cases.

Russian 'chessboard' killer Alexander Pichushkin gave a chilling insight into his twisted mind today when he told a court his power of life and death made him "almost God".

A fire has broken out in a women’s ward of a Moscow drug treatment hospital, filling the ward with heavy smoke and killing 45 women who became trapped between the fire and a locked gate, officials said.

A fire broke out at a hospital in southern Moscow early today, killing at least four patients and forcing the evacuation of dozens of other patients, an emergency official said