Russia has offered to send France a puppy as a sign of solidarity against terrorism, after French service dog Diesel was killed during an anti-terrorism raid last week.

Diesel was killed during a raid connected to a series of coordinated attacks across Paris last week that left 130 people dead and hundreds more injured.

The Russian minister for internal affairs, Vladimir Kolokoltsez, sent a letter to his French counterpart, Bernard Cazeneuve, offering the puppy as an expression of Russia's solidarity with France.

Mr Kolokoltsez asked the French internal affairs minister to accept the service puppy, named Dobrynia, who he said would grow to take the place of Diesel, "as confirmation of our solidarity with the French police in these troubled days".

"The puppy will be given [to] France in solidarity with the French people and police in the fight against terrorism," the Russian interior ministry posted on Facebook.

The puppy was named after the Russian hero, Dobrynya, who the Russian interior ministry described as "the personification of strength, kindness, bravery and selflessness".

Dobrynya was the uncle and tutor of Vladimir the Great, and was later fictionalised in Russian folklore as a bogatyr, or powerful warrior.

Diesel was killed on Wednesday morning when she was sent into an apartment targeted in an anti-terror raid, to "gauge the threat inside", French news channel BFMTV reported.

Paris police chief Jean-Michel Fauvergue told French newspaper Le Parisien that Diesel "probably saved the lives of policemen who were about to enter".

French police announced Diesel's death on Twitter, and said the 7-year-old service dog had been "indispensable" to the operation.

Diesel's death led to an outpouring of support and grief, with many taking to social media to pay tribute to the fallen dog, hashtagging photos of pets with #JeSuisDiesel or #JeSuisChien.

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