Thieves have made off with $600,000 and 180,000 Deutsche marks, killing a security guard and seriously wounding another, a Moscow police spokesman said Wednesday.


The spokesman, Vladimir Zubkov, said that the robbery, which took place on Butyrskaya Ulitsa in central Moscow on Monday, was "the biggest ever in Russian history."


Zubkkov said that at 5:30 P.M. Monday, two unidentified men wearing masks approached a Zhiguli automobile occupied by two security guards of the Yekaterinburg-based Rifei commercial bank and opened fire at point-blank.


One of the guards, Mikhail Bukreev, 21, was killed immediately. The other, Sergei Pankin, 28 was seriously wounded and was taken to a city hospital, Zubkov said.


He said that the criminals then removed a blue sports bag with the $600,000 and 180,000 Deutsche marks from the guards' car and made their escape in a foreign model automobile without license plates.


Police have begun an investigation but have not detained anyone, Zubkov said.


"There were practically no witnesses of the incident," he said.


The guards had come to Moscow from Yekaterinburg in the Urals to change the bank's ruble funds into hard currency.


Zubkov said that the guards had made such trips twice a week. During their visits, they usually stayed in rooms at the Ural store on Butyrskaya Ulitsa.


Zubkov said the guards had left the store Monday with the money when the attack took place.


"This assault was very well planned," he said. "Most likely, the criminals knew in advance that the guards had so big amount of money, otherwise, they would not have opened fire without any warnings."


Dmitry Svetlovsky, head of the bank's guard department in Yekaterinburg, said by phone that he thought the assault had been "painstakingly" prepared and carried out "rather skillfully."


"The time and place for assault were chosen ideally," he said.