Banker still in coma three days after Canary Wharf assassination bid

A Russian banker is still in a coma tonight—three days after an attempted murder near Canary Wharf in East London.

More details are emerging of Tuesday evening’s shooting in Byng Street, Millwall, when he was hit several times while entering his luxury apartment block, first reported on the East London Advertiser and London24 websites the next day.

The 45-year-old exile, named in the Russian press as German Gorbuntsov, was shot with what’s believed to have been a sub-machine gun.

The gunman was seen fleeing towards West Ferry Road before police arrived, according to Scotland Yard.

Mr Gorbuntsov, who used to own banks in Russia and Moldova, was said by the Moscow business newspaper Kommersant to be seriously injured and placed in a medically-induced coma, and that he was under armed guard in hospital.

The newspaper reported that Mr Gorbuntsov’s lawyer had linked Tuesday’s attack to his role in a 2009 investigation into the attempted murder in Moscow of a banker involving dissident Chechnyans.

Scotland Yard would not confirm the victim’s identity, but said he was shot several times as he entered the block of flats in Byng Street by a gunman described as white, 6ft tall and slim build.

An appeal was put out through the East London Advertiser the day after for witnesses who may have been in Byng Street at 7.30pm on Tuesday to call the incident room on 020-8733 4212, or dial 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555111.

It was the second shooting on the Isle of Dogs in two weeks, after two men were wounded by a shotgun in Manchester Road by the Samuda Estate on March 11, but police are not linking it to Tuesday’s incident.