Vladimir Putin’s car was “attacked” in what may have been an assassination attempt amid the Ukraine war, according to an unconfirmed claim.
The Kremlin leader 's limousine was allegedly hit by a “loud bang” on its left front wheel followed by heavy smoke.
Putin was unharmed as his car drove to safety but there have been multiple arrests from his security service.
Other bodyguards have vanished amid claims that secret information about the 69-year-old ruler’s movements was compromised, according to General SVR Telegram channel.
In a separate post, the same source claims that Putin had ordered his glamorous lover Alina Kabaeva, 39, a former Olympic gymnast, to have an abortion leading to a “worsening” of their relations.
It is not immediately possible to verify either extraordinary claim.
According to the anti-Kremlin channel, Putin was travelling back to his official residence on an unspecified date in a decoy or “backup” motorcade amid deep security fears.
This comprised five armoured cars, with Putin in the third, according to the claim.
“On the way to the residence, a few kilometres away, the first escort car was blocked by an ambulance, [and] the second escort car drove around without stopping [due to the] sudden obstacle, and during the detour of the obstacle.
In Putin’s car “a loud bang sounded from the left front wheel followed by heavy smoke”.
Putin’s car “despite the problems with control” made its way out of the attack scene to reach the safety of the residence.
“Subsequently, the body of a man was found driving [the] ambulance, which blocked the first car from the motorcade,” said SVR General.
The channel - which boasts an inside track to the Kremlin yet provides no hard evidence for its allegations - said details of the supposed attack are “classified”.
“The head of the president's bodyguard [service] and several other people have been suspended and are in custody,” claimed the channel, without naming anyone.
“A narrow circle of people knew about the movement of the president in this cortege, and all of them were from the presidential security service.
“After the incident, three of them disappeared. These were exactly the people who were in the first car of the motorcade.
“Their fate is currently unknown. The car on which they were traveling was found empty a few kilometres from the incident.”
In another post, the channel claimed that a Kabaeva pregnancy - which it “revealed” in May - had now been terminated.
This was the reason Kabaeva - rumoured to have several children with the Kremlin leader, who will be 70 next month - had gone into hiding in recent weeks.
She was last seen in the first half of June in St Petersburg but has not appeared in public since.
“We already talked at the beginning of May this year that Alina Kabaeva was pregnant, and after the sex of the unborn child became known, we reported that Putin and Kabaeva would soon have a girl,” posted the channel on Wednesday.
“But Russian President Vladimir Putin considered Kabaeva's pregnancy untimely, and the birth of another, unplanned child, undesirable.
“As a result, relations between Putin and Kabaeva worsened.
“And at the end of August, the president insisted that Alina have an abortion, despite the fact that the pregnancy was already more than 20 weeks and there were no medical and social indications for abortion.
“After the abortion, complications arose and for some time Kabaeva could not appear in public.
“By order of Russian President Vladimir Putin, thousands of women and children are being killed [in Ukraine”, whose fate is indifferent to him.
“But he also wanted to spit on people close to him, including his common-law wife and children.”
Kabaeva refused a request from her mentor Irina Viner - longtime wife of ex-Arsenal FC part-owner Alisher Usmanov - to take part in a gala concert last weekend in Moscow.
Putin has never confirmed a relationship with Kabaeva and his officials have issued denials which are not believed by many Russians.
Putin has two officially acknowledged children — Maria, 37, and Katerina, 35, both from first wife Lyudmila.
Dr Maria Vorontsova, a year younger than Kabaeva, was born when the Russian president was a KGB spy in Germany, is an expert in rare genetic diseases in children.
She is a leading researcher at the National Medical Research Center for Endocrinology of the Ministry of Health of Russia.
Her divorced sister Katerina is deputy director of the Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems at Moscow State University.
She is a former high-kicking ‘rock’n’roll’ dancer.
Both elder daughters have been sanctioned by the West, unlike Kabaeva, and Putin’s unacknowledged “love child” Luiza Rozova, 19.
Luiza is the daughter of cleaner-turned-multimillionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, 45, now part-owner of a major Russian bank, one of the country's wealthiest women with an estimated £74 million financial and property fortune.
