Moscow’s top policeman has been sacked as shockwaves from a killing spree by a senior officer continue to ripple across the city.

President Medvedev dismissed Colonel-General Vladimir Pronin, who had been Moscow’s police chief since 2001, and dismissed the head and three deputies of the southern police district where Major Denis Yevsyukov had served. The presidential order cited the shooting spree at a supermarket on Monday, when Mr Yevsyukov killed three people and wounded six after an argument with his wife at his 32nd birthday party.

The tragedy seems to have strengthened public feeling that Moscow’s police force is out of control.

A Kremlin spokesman told Interfax news that Moscow’s police leadership was being held accountable for the incident. The Interior Minister, Rashid Nurgaliyev, appointed Mr Pronin’s deputy, Alexander Ivanov, as acting police chief.

The dismissal of Mr Pronin, 60, caught Moscow’s Mayor Yuri Luzhkov off guard, sparking fresh speculation about his own future in a post he has held since 1992. Mr Luzhkov, 72, appeared to question the President’s order when asked to react during a live television interview, saying: “I have only just learned about the decision from you. I am very sorry about this.”

Mr Pronin had taken a close interest in the case, visiting the scene of the shooting and speaking to Mr Yevsyukov within hours of his arrest. He told Russian television afterwards that Mr Yevsyukov had been a “great officer” and that he had no recollection of his actions.

Radio talk shows have been filled with calls from listeners angry at the scale of police corruption, violence and incompetence that they have experienced.

Newspapers also have been scathing. The opposition Novaya Gazeta headlined its front-page report with the declaration: “It would be better to dissolve them completely because it is impossible to control a lawless police force.” It continued: “They take bribes and torture detainees, kill suspects and take away businesses, throw out criminal cases and fabricate charges, organise illegal surveillance and sell information to criminals... abduct people and demand ransoms... they are so busy with their own criminal business that they have no time to catch criminals.”

Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that Mr Yevsyukov had been involved in a drunken shooting incident at a cafe a year ago, which his superiors covered up so as not to harm his promotion as head of the Tsaritsyno district force last October.

Gennady Gudkov, the deputy chairman of the security committee in the Duma, Russia’s parliament, told Kommersant that the latest case demonstrated that the police had “got out of control of society”.

Mr Yevsyukov went on the rampage after a party at a restaurant to celebrate his birthday. He returned home to change into his police uniform and then shot a taxi driver before opening fire at staff and customers inside the supermarket.

Police said that he had suffered a nervous breakdown after an argument with his wife over the amount of time he was spending at work. She was named in several newspapers yesterday as Karina Tonakanyan, 28, a former singer with an all-girl pop group named Strelki.

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