Banker seriously injured in Moscow attack: reports

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A gunman shot and seriously wounded the head of a Russian banking group in an attack in Moscow on Wednesday that was likely linked to his work, local news agencies quoted investigators as saying.

The chairman of the board of the mid-size Konvers Group, Alexander Antonov, was shot on a street in northwest Moscow early on Wednesday, ITAR-TASS and RIA Novosti news agencies reported.

"A. Y. Antonov was injured, and he and his security guard are in intensive care," RIA Novosti quoted Viktoria Tsiplenkova, an investigator with the General Prosecutors' Investigative Committee as saying.

A statement on the committee's website said an unidentified assailant shot at the banking group's chairman of board and his bodyguard, and that criminal proceedings had been launched.

RIA quoted another investigator, Anatoly Bagmet, as saying the attack was likely linked with Antonov's professional activities.

Shootings of high-profile businessmen are relatively rare in Moscow. A Russian financier was jailed last year for the 2006 murder of the deputy head of the Central Bank Andrei Kozlov who led a campaign against money laundering and corruption.

(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Katie Nguyen)