The Russian Interior Ministry has sacked the police chief of the country's second city, St Petersburg, blaming alleged illegal behaviour by his force.

The police chief, Anatoly Ponidelko, was also criticised for sacking more than one-thousand officials during an anti-corruption campaign, undermining police morale, and of manipulating police statistics to suggest a big fall in local crime.

Mr Ponidelko described his dismissal as a political decision triggered by his fight against corruption in St Petersburg's law enforcement agencies.