Shot Russian ex-banker German Gorbuntsov under armed guard

A Russian former banker is under armed guard in hospital after he was shot several times in east London.

German Gorbuntsov was shot by a man as he entered his apartment in Byng Street, Isle of Dogs, near Canary Wharf, on Tuesday.

Mr Gorbuntsov, in his 40s, is in a coma in a critical but stable condition.
Police said it was "too early to speculate" on Russian reports linking it to a murder attempt in Moscow on another banker, Alexander Antonov.

The Metropolitan Police would not confirm Russian reports that the attacker had used a sub-machine gun and officers declined to reveal where Mr Gorbuntsov is being treated.
The suspect is a white male who ran off along Westferry Road.
Detectives from the Trident gang crime command are dealing with the incident, which happened at about
'Contract hit'
Mr Gorbuntsov previously owned banks in Russia and Moldova, according to Russian media.
He was returning to his home when the attacker opened fire, the Russian Kommersant newspaper has reported.

No arrests have been made and detectives are treating the shooting as attempted murder.

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Former Kremlin advisor Aleksander Nekrassov: "It looks like a contract hit"

There has been speculation in the Russian press that Mr Gorbuntsov was a witness to the murder attempt on Alexander Antonov in 2009.
Aleksander Nekrassov, a former Kremlin adviser, told the BBC: "It looks like a contract hit to be honest because a sub-machine gun is not really a weapon that would be used by some amateur.
"What is important is that Mr Gorbuntsov has been saying publicly through his lawyer, which was in the papers in Russia, that he might actually know of people who might have been linked to this attempted assassination [on Mr Antonov], so we might conclude that it has some sort of a link on this attack on him.
"Certain people were either trying to avenge or interfere with a criminal investigation. I think what we are seeing here is [the] strange ways that some of Russian businessmen carry out their deals, spilling over into Britain."
Window shot out
Scotland Yard said it was "too early to speculate" on such reports.
The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera said: "Although at this stage the motive for this attack remains unclear, the concern will be that the type of violence long associated with business and organised crime in Russia might have arrived on the streets of London."

Mr Gorbuntsov was shot outside the block of flats on Byng Street where he lived

Mr Nekrassov added that Mr Gorbuntsov was "one of the big bankers" in Russia but over the past few years he "did sort of drift away from banking and was selling his interests in Russia".
A 54-year-old management consultant who lived in the building and gave his name as John said police told him the attacker was "known" to the victim.

He said: "Around 9pm that night the police knocked on the door and mentioned there had been an incident, and that someone was critically injured and taken to hospital.
"They mentioned that the attacker was known to the person who'd been attacked."

Tony Smith, 26, an estate agent who was driving down the street moments after the shooting, said: "The window was shot out on the door. I looked at him, I thought he had been stabbed at first. I didn't expect this to happen in this block."