Moscow: A top soccer director was shot dead on Sunday in Russia’s far east region, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Quoting local police, RIA said that Viktor Skripal, the executive director of Russian first division club Luch-Energia Vladivostok, was killed near his home on Sunday evening.

It said an unidentified gunman had shot at Skripal several times from close range before fleeing.

Police were still looking for the gunman and the motives behind the killing.

It was the latest in a series of violent crimes against high-profile soccer officials in Russia in recent years.

Ex-Russian international Yuri Tishkov, who headed a well-known agency representing players, was killed in an attack late at night near his Moscow apartment in January 2003.

Former referee chief, Sergei Khusainov, was severely beaten up in a similar attack the following month.