MOSCOW: Russian police announced Wednesday the capture of a gunman suspected to have killed six people in an attack in a busy town centre, after a massive manhunt lasting more than 24 hours.

Convicted criminal Sergei Pomazun, 31, was shown on television pinned down by police who found him trying to board a freight train in the city ofBelgorod, close to the Ukrainian border, where the shootings took place.

"I didn't shoot children. I was shooting at hell," said the wild-eyed man lying face-down on the ground in handcuffs in a police video broadcast on Rossiya 1 channel. He is believed to be the gunman who opened fire in a hunting store on Monday before going outside and shooting passersby in a central square, including two girls aged 14 and 16, who both died, before fleeing.

Pomazun stabbed a policeman during his capture late Tuesday. The police major was in intensive care in hospital with non-life-threatening wounds.

Investigators said that Pomazun took a hunting rifle belonging to his father which he used to shoot dead two staff and a customer in the hunting store.