A former CNN anchor was attacked by a gunman trying to rob her in a Route 66 motel - but survived the frenzied attack after her naked husband rescued her.

Lynne Russell, 68, had stopped for the night in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Tuesday when she was reportedly grabbed my an unidentified robber who demanded valuables from her room.

But she was saved from the attack after her husband - who has served in the special forces - burst out of the shower and gunned the assailant down in the nude.

Gunfight: Lynne Russell, 68, was attacked in her room at a Motel 6 in Albuquerque Tuesday night - but survived after her husband, Chuck de Caro, pictured with her above, killed him

Crime scene: A police officer is pictured above collecting evidence from the motel room - into which Russell said the assailant followed her, then demanded valuables

From colleagues to companions: Chuck de Caro and his wife, Lynne Russell, both formerly with CNN, were engaged in 2013, years after their time at the news network

Chuck de Caro, 65, was hit himself three times in the frantic exchange of gunfire, but managed to fatally wound the attacker and save the pair, the New York Post reported.

He was hit twice in the abdomen and once in the leg. De Caro had to be taken to hospital, but was well enough to be interviewed and is expected to recover.

Russell, the first solo anchor on network news, recounted how there was a tense exchange with the attacker before the shootout, around 11:30pm.

She told the Post: 'I opened the door and he materialized out of nowhere; he was inside. And he pushed me into the room and onto the bed and closed the door.'

Investigation: Police are shown above investigating the scene. Russell said her husband saved her in an intense shootout during which he was wearing no clothes

Fighter: De Caro said: 'I was determined to save my dream girl's life - even if it cost my own'

TV personality: Russell was an anchor for CNN from 1983 to 2001 - and is pictured above on CNN Headline News in her final year on the job

'We tried to calm the man, ask him not to point the gun because we really couldn't think what we could give him. It felt to me he was used to doing this, that whatever happened wouldn't bother him.'

Russell reportedly managed to slip De Caro a handgun during the conversation, by handing him a purse which had the .35-caliber weapon concealed inside.

NBC News said she asked the gunman for the purse, claiming there could be something valuable inside, then gave it to her husband to extract the weapon from.

Speaking from his hospital bed Wednesday, he said: 'I was determined to save my dream girl's life - even if it cost my own.'

The couple were in New Mexico on a cross-country road trip which started in Washington, D.C., and was due to finish in California.

The trip was following the historic line of Route 66, which goes straight through Albuquerque - and the Motel 6 they stayed in was just two miles from the old highway, now known as Central Ave SW.

Albuquerque police could not be reached for comment Wednesday night - but the Post reported that cops judged the killing to have been lawful.