Raw video,Caught On Camera : VLADIVOSTOK/MOSCOW, March 14 - Russian special armed police forces in Vladivostok killed three men on Saturday in a raid on an apartment looking for suspects in an earlier attack on three Chinese businessmen in the Far Eastern Russian city.

The senior assistant to the chief investigator of the Primorye Territory branch of the Prosecutor General's Office said three men suspected of involvement in the attack on the Chinese had been killed.

"The inhabitants of the apartment opened fire with automatic weapons and a grenade launcher," Avrora Rimskaya said. "Law enforcement officers opened fire in response. As a result the three suspects were killed."

Early on March 7, six masked men burst into an apartment in Vladivostok where three businessmen from China were living temporarily, apparently in a robbery attempt. However, the Chinese put up resistance and after a firefight the gang fled without taking anything.

The three Chinese were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds and one later died. The other two remain in hospital.

A regional emergencies ministry spokesperson said the apartment caught fire during Saturday's operation, but it was quickly brought under control and other residents were not affected.

Rimskaya said that 11 suspects had been identified in the investigation into the attack on the Chinese businessmen, and searches of some addresses were still to take place.

Russia's Far Eastern regions neighboring China are home to hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals, many of whom work illegally as shuttle traders.