A police officer from the Urals city of Severouralsk committed suicide after accidentally shooting a female colleague dead, a spokesman for the regional police department said on Tuesday.

Pavel Limonov, 26, accidentally fired a shot as he was handing in his weapon late on Monday after working a day shift.

"The bullet rebounded from a wall and hit police officer Natalya Zakharova in the head. She died of her injuries," Valery Gorelykh said.

When Limonov realized that the 33-year-old woman was dead, he shot himself in the head.

Limonov is survived by a 4-year-old son, Zakharova is survived by an 11-year-old son.

YEKATERINBURG, November 17 (RIA Novosti)