The abduction of a weightlifting instructor went awry this week in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan when the victim broke free and killed one of his kidnappers.

Two criminals handcuffed the instructor to a radiator at gunpoint in the basement of his own gym on Tuesday and demanded a ransom of 2 million rubles ($66,000), the republican police website reported on Thursday.

But when one of the two left the next morning, and the other left the gun on a nearby table, the 34-year-old athlete freed himself, grabbed the gun and shot the kidnapper dead on the spot, the report said.

Police did not give any names, but said that the incident took place in the city of Derbent. The surviving kidnapper remains on the run and was placed on the regional wanted list.

The instructor is likely to avoid any penalty because his actions qualify for reasonable self-defense, Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily said. It remained unclear how he broke free.