A Russian cosmonaut drove over a colleague on a dark road outside Moscow less than three weeks after returning from his latest orbiting mission.

Oleg Artemyev did not see the Star City cosmonaut training centre worker, who was crossing the road in the dark late on Monday, Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos said.

The 51-year-old immediately gave first aid to the victim, Anatoly Uronov, who was taken to hospital with several broken bones, Roscosmos said in a statement on Tuesday.

Artemyev was sober and promptly called police and an ambulance, it stressed.

He returned from his third mission to the International Space Station on September 29, having spent a total of 561 days in orbit.