A Russian police major went on a killing spree at a Moscow supermarket yesterday, leaving three people dead and at least six injured, investigators said, in the latest blow to the force's standing.

Major Denis Yevsyukov, head of police of the southern Moscow district of Tsaritsyno, had been celebrating his birthday in a cafe and apparently argued with his wife before embarking on what proved to be a night of havoc.

Returning home from the cafe, he donned his policeman's coat and went out again, taking a lift in an unofficial private taxi, the prosecutor general's investigative committee said in a statement.

Mr Yevsyukov "shot dead the driver of the Chevrolet Lanos he was being driven in.... The police chief then entered the Ostrov supermarket and continued firing.

"As a result a female cashier and a man were killed. Another six people received gunshot wounds of varying degrees of seriousness," the statement said.

And as police colleagues arrived at the supermarket, located in Moscow's gritty southern suburbs, Mr Yevsyukov turned on them.

"He was firing vigorously, putting up resistance. It's a miracle none of the boys taking part in the arrest were injured," ITAR-TASS quoted a police source as saying.