Seven businessmen murdered in Siberia

The bodies of seven local businesspeople, including five women, have been found on a remote road in Siberia after being shot and stabbed to death, Russian officials said yesterday.

The bodies were found late on Tuesday by a road 180 kilometres from the town of Zakamensk, near the border with Mongolia, in the Buryatia region.

Their bodies had gunshot and knife wounds, investigators said in a statement. "The main theory is that they were attacked to rob them of their money," it said.

Life News web site reported that the victims were small-time traders who were each carrying between 40,000 and 60,00 rubles ($1,300 to $2,000) in cash, citing relatives.

The authorities had launched a search after their relatives reported them missing on a business trip. They were travelling on a minibus on Saturday between Zakamensk and the city of Irkutsk.

Russia is notorious for murders in the business world which are often linked to criminal or mafia score settling even if the frequency of such events has slackened somewhat compared to the chaos of the 1990s.