By
Will Stewart and ABUL TAHER
18:29 EST, 31 March 2012
|
18:29 EST, 31 March 2012
‘Sobbing’: Witnesses said they saw Natasha Semchenkova making frantic calls on her phone moments after the shooting
This is the stunning blonde who was seen crying hysterically after Russian banker German Gorbuntsov was gunned down outside his luxury London apartment.
Identified by well-placed sources as Natasha Semchenkova, she was seen making frantic calls on her phone moments after the shooting as paramedics fought to save her lover’s life.
Eyewitnesses saw the distressed woman being interviewed by detectives at the scene before she was whisked away in an unmarked police vehicle. Ms Semchenkova is now believed to be under armed police guard for her own safety.
Friends say she has given officers vital clues about who might have been behind the murder bid.
Ms Semchenkova, who was born in the Russian capital and is understood to be in her 20s, may have been in a relationship with 45-year-old Mr Gorbuntsov for the past two years. She is believed to have given birth to a son in Israel last year and one friend said: ‘There may be an age difference, but she adores German.’
However, her relationship with the married tycoon was not known to his wife, Larisa, 46, with whom he has a 25-year-old son called Vladislav.
Mrs Gorbuntsov flew to London from a city in Europe – a location she does not want disclosed for her own safety – as soon as she was told of the shooting outside her husband’s flat near Canary Wharf on March 20 and has been at his hospital bedside since.
He came out of a medically induced coma on Friday night and could be interviewed by Scotland Yard detectives this week.
‘Hysterical’: Miss Semchenkova is thought to have watched the violent episode
Murder attempt: Gorbuntsov is lifted into an ambulance after being shot outside his luxury apartment
Enquiries made by The Mail on Sunday reveal that Mr Gorbuntsov, who amassed his fortune through stakes in six major banks in Russia and Moldova, was shot by a hooded gunman inside the foyer of the Marlin Apartments on the Isle of Dogs, East London. The weapon – a pistol fitted with a silencer – was found dumped in a bush nearby.
No arrests have been made, but police have appealed for the taxi driver who dropped off Mr Gorbuntsov that evening to come forward. Before the shooting, Mr Gorbuntsov had been working at investment bank Conversgroup in the City and was also seen drinking with fellow Russian Vladimir Antonov, a former owner of Portsmouth Football Club.
Mr Gorbuntsov had told friends days before the attack that he feared for his safety, and said he had been tailed by a black Audi. It is believed that he was going to claim asylum in Britain as he feared he would be killed if he returned to Russia.
Coma: Russian German Gorbuntsov and wife Larisa on holiday in Prague last year
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