Policeman shoots dog and kills owner

A Moscow policeman who was knocked down by a Rottweiler shot and wounded the dog and killed the owner.

Bulat Azizbayev, was patrolling a working-class neighbourhood of the Russian capital yesterday when he saw a woman walking with three large dogs, all unmuzzled and one without a leash.

He warned the woman, Natalya Slimanka, that she should not walk with unmuzzled dogs and that he would shoot if the dogs attacked passers-by, said Moscow police spokesman Yevgeny Geldiyev.

While he was speaking with Slimanka, one of the dogs, a Rottweiler, attacked Azizbayev, who shot the animal four times.

Slimanka was caught in the cross fire and died later at a hospital from a bullet wound in the chest, Geldiyev said.

It was not clear what happened to the dog.