Security cameras that would have filmed Boris Nemtsov shooting were 'turned off for repairs'

There are conflicting reports about whether footage exists

(Getty)

Security cameras that would have filmed the shooting of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov were turned off for repairs at the time, according to local media reports.

The claims come amid conflicting reports about whether footage of the killing exists.

Sources at the country’s Interior Ministry say there was no CCTV footage of the killing because the cameras in question were not working, according to the Kommersant newspaper.

On the bridge: Boris Nemtsov was shot close to the Kremlin on Friday night (AFP/Getty)

Recordings of the event were “either not very clear, or altogether absent, as they were turned off for repair”, the newspaper said.

She noted that federal authorities also had surveillance cameras near the Kremlin but that these were not under the department’s control.

Low resolution webcam footage purportedly of Mr Nemtsov walking over the bridge on which he was shot has been released by a local government-controlled television station, TVC.

The footage shows two figures walking, but view of the incident is obscured by a passing vehicle. It could not be independently verified.

The confusion over the status of CCTV footage comes as it emerges that Russian police are still holding Mr Nemtsov’s girlfriend, who was with him at the time of his killing.

Anna Duritskaya, a 23-year-old model who is the one witness to the crime, has been held for questioning since early Saturday

In an interview with the Russian TV channel Dozhd she said she had not seen Mr Nemtsov's attacker, however.

“I didn't see anything,” she said. “I turned around and all I saw was a light-coloured car. I saw neither the brand nor the licence plate of the car when it was driving away.”

Ms Duritskaya says she wants to leave the country but has been prevented from doing so by police guards. She is being held at a friend’s flat in Moscow.