MOSCOW: Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of fabled AK-47 automatic rifle, has died, Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency reported on Monday, citing the office of the presidency in the Udmurtia region where he worked. He was 94.

Kalashnikov designed a weapon that became synonymous with killing on a sometimes indiscriminate scale but was seen in the Soviet Union as a national hero and symbol of Moscow's proud military past.