MOSCOW, April 23 (RIA Novosti) - The son of Andrei Chikatilo, the Soviet Union's most infamous serial killer, has been arrested in east Ukraine on attempted murder charges.

The Donbass newspaper reported that Yury Odnacheva, 39, was detained in the city of Kharkov after allegedly stabbing an acquaintance.

Citing senior police official Sergei Karakutsa, the paper said that the two men had been in the centre of the city "on business" when they went to the toilet. It was then that Odnacheva, who changed his surname a number of years ago, is alleged to have pulled out a knife and stabbed his 30-year-old companion in the stomach several times.

The paper said that the injured man then managed to get to his car and drive to a local market, where an ambulance was called. The victim was in a critical condition having lost a lot of blood and underwent an emergency operation.

Doctors subsequently reported that the stab victim had responded to treatment and his wounds were healing well.

Odnacheva, earlier convicted of theft and extortion, has denied the charges, saying that his alleged victim first stole his car and then "got into a scrape somewhere."

Ukrainian-born Chikatilo was executed in 1994 for the murders of 52 people, many of them children. He admitted killing 53 people.