Anna Loginova combined glamour and grit as a successful model and owner of a all-women bodyguard service in Russia.

But neither beauty nor brawn could save her when she fell victim to a carjacking in Moscow. The 29-year-old died from head injuries after being dragged at high speed along the street as she tried to stop a man stealing her Porsche Cayenne car.

Witnesses said that the thief pushed Ms Loginova aside as she opened her car door near her home on Sunday. He jumped into the driver's seat and slammed the door shut but she grabbed hold of the handle just before he sped away.

She was dragged for several metres before letting go and slamming her head against the pavement. She died before an ambulance arrived and police later found her car abandoned near by.

Ms Loginova rose to prominence in Russia as a model for brands such as BMW and Chanel. But a passion for martial arts also led her to set up a company employing women bodyguards, some trained by the former KGB, to provide security for wealthy businessmen in the notoriously violent Russian capital.

In an interview with Russian Maxim magazine in December Ms Loginova, who appeared in a scantily clad photoshoot, told how she had recently foiled another attempt to steal her car.

She said: “I stepped out of my car and closed the door when I suddenly saw a young man near me. He grabbed me by the arm.

“By reflex, I used a jujitsu technique. I twisted his arm and hit him on the face with my elbow. The guy obviously was not expecting such a reaction.”

She said that the man fled to a waiting car after she pulled out a gun and aimed it at him. Ms Loginova also told how she had got the idea to open an all-women security service after completing a training course in extreme driving and attending a bodyguard school.

“A normal man gets sick and tired of male bodyguards around him

all the time,” she explained. “Also, many restaurants now do not allow a guard inside. They can come in and check everything but then they are asked to wait in the lobby. In contrast, you can take a female bodyguard inside, she will sit down at the table and nobody would guess that she's a weapon herself — and can react appropriately in any dangerous situation.”

Ms Loginova said that her bodyguards were not all models but added that she believed “a girl should be a girl, not a Terminator”. She traded on her striking appearance, advertising her service on the website of the Stilet private security company dressed in sleek black clothing and carrying a Samurai sword.

She was repeatedly rumoured to have been the bodyguard in Russia of Kostya Tszyu, the super-lightweight world champion boxer, after she was photographed standing behind him in the same outfit at a press conference. She denied it, however, saying that she had simply been hired as a model at an event organised by a Russian newspaper.

A manager at the British International School in Moscow also became a victim of crime on Wednesday when a gang attacked him and made off with 5.6 million roubles (£115,000) in cash as he left a bank on the prestigious Kutuzovsky Prospekt.

The unnamed Russian man was attacked by four robbers who snatched the money and fled in a Volvo. The manager's driver gave chase in his Audi and rammed the robbers' vehicle.

Gang members then dragged him from his car, hit him repeatedly with a hammer and made off in the Audi, which was later found abandoned by police.

A school spokeswoman declined to comment on the robbery yesterday.

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