The 43-year-old shot dead a border policeman and an airport security employee on Friday after grabbing a gun from a border police official.

He had been banned from entering Moldova for security reasons and was being sent home.

The man, wanted in his country for the kidnapping of a senior bank official, died yesterday, police said in a statement.

Moldova, which borders Ukraine and whose pro-European government fears destabilisation attempts by Russia, has stepped up screenings at entry points in recent months.

The Tajik national “could not clearly explain his reason for arrival and the purpose” of being in Moldova, general prosecutor Ion Munteanu said.

Tajik prosecutors named the man as Ashurov Rustam Karimovich and said he was wanted over the June 23 kidnapping of the first deputy chairman of Tajikistan bank Orienbank.

He fled via Turkey to Moldova to seek to reach a European Union country to hide, they said.

Moldova’s president Maia Sandu declared a day of national mourning today for the victims of the airport shooting.

Authorities are reviewing the security procedures at the airport.

The country of 2.6 million people lies between Ukraine and EU member Romania and is one of Europe’s poorest nations.