THE head of a Russian foreign ministry department has been found shot dead in a Moscow apartment,

He has now been identified as 56-year-old Petr Polshikov, a high-ranking diplomat said to have been a senior figure in the Latin American section of the ministry.

A man’s body was found with a gunshot wound to the head, REN TV reported. Two shells were found along with a gun under the sink in the kitchen, a source told the news outlet. They claimed the wife of the man was also in the apartment.

Paramedics were filmed carrying a man wearing a white shirt into an ambulance.

The news comes on a dramatic day after nine were killed by a truck driving into a Berlin Christmas market and a Turkish off-duty police officer pulled out a gun at an art exhibition in Ankara and killed Russia’s ambassador to the country, Andrei Karlov, shouting: “Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria!”

Police are still examining a number of theories over Polshikov’s death.