Gun hit banker's wife prays for a miracle - The Sun

THE wife of gunned-down banker German Gorbuntsov was praying for a miracle last night as he clung to life in a coma.

Larisa Gorbuntsov, 46, wept as she held his hand, with gun cops on guard nearby.

A relative said: "German needs a miracle. Larisa has told us all to pray for him. She is in tears and cannot believe why this happened. She keeps asking, 'Why?'"

The Russian exile, 45, was blasted with a sub-machine gun in front of a blonde woman not thought to have been Larisa as he returned to his London flat.

He may have been shot up to six times including in the face and back as the assassination bid left his blood spattered all over foyer walls.

One neighbour said yesterday: "At about 7.30pm I heard a woman scream. I saw a blonde woman trying to flag down cars for help. She was hysterical.

"When I moved closer, it appeared he had been shot in the face and there were at least three holes to the back of his jacket."

The hitman fled on foot after Tuesday's attack near Canary Wharf, East London. Cops said his victim, in a medically induced coma, was "critical but stable".

The financier, who once owned Russian and Moldovan banks, is believed to have been targeted after witnessing a banker's Moscow shooting in 2009.

He is said to have confided to his lawyer: "If I go back to Russia, they will kill me."

a.france@the-sun.co.uk