MOSCOW - Gunmen wounded Moscow's deputy mayor and killed his driver Tuesday when they opened fire on his car in an attack blamed on the criminal underworld.

Russian news agencies quoted Mayor Yuri Luzkhov as saying Iosif Ordzhonikidze was in serious condition and undergoing an operation after a bullet grazed his internal organs.

Earlier reports had said Ordzhonikidze, who is responsible for international economic ties in the Russian capital, had only been lightly injured in the thigh.

The medics fear for his life,'' Luzkhov was quoted by Interfax as saying.

A duty officer at Moscow's Sklifosovsky Hospital confirmed Ordzhonikidze had been admitted, but gave no details on his condition.

News reports said two masked gunmen shot at Ordzhonikidze's car with armour-piercing bullets. NTV commercial television said an automatic rifle with a mounted grenade launcher had been found at the scene.

It showed a bullet-ridden black sedan being taken away on a flat-bed truck.

In televised comments, Luzhkov called the attack a ``terrible crime.''

Ordzhonikidze recently signed an agreement to build Russia's first top-class international motorsport circuit at a cost of around $100 million US.

The deputy mayor also deals with the use of hard currency in Moscow, measures for regulating currency expenditure in the city and attracting foreign investment.

Luzhkov said Ordzhonikidze was ``a victim of a decision that did not please criminal organizations.''

He had to take a lot of those sorts of decisions,'' he said.

A few months earlier, one of Ordzhonikidze's aides also came under fire while on his way to work by car, but was not hurt.