A policeman has been shot dead in Kyiv, the city police authority said on Wednesday.

The officer died in a hospital of a chest wound, the authority said in a statement.

The 42-year-old policeman was picked up by an ambulance after the police received a report through the 102 emergency phone line at around 1400 on Tuesday that a man had been shot and wounded in a park in Ukraine's capital.

The officer died during attempts by doctors to save him several hours after being brought to the hospital.

The police department of the city's Dniprovsky district was investigating the incident and suspected murder, the statement said.