Russia's Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev died in an Arctic civil defence exercise on Wednesday while trying to save the life of a cameraman who had fallen off a cliff. 

The ministry said Zinichev, 55, had died in the Norilsk area while trying to save someone's life.

A cameraman had fallen off a cliff during an interview,

"He and the cameraman were on the edge of a cliff. The cameraman slipped and fell into the water," according to Margarita Simonyan, the head of Russian broadcaster RT.

"Zinichev rushed after the fallen man and died after hitting a protruding rock."

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The cameraman, film director Alexander Melnik, 63, also died. Russian media said the accident happened at the Kitabo Oron waterfall in the Putorana nature reserve in northern Siberia, some 165km west of Norilsk.

Zinichev had been emergencies minister since 2018 and for years was reportedly a key member of President Vladimir Putin's security detail.

For most of his career he worked in state security, beginning with the Soviet KGB and eventually rising to number two in Russia's federal security service in 2016.

A Kremlin statement said Mr Putin had shared many years working with Zinichev and spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was a great loss.

Melnik was a director and screenwriter and was known for his 2015 Arctic adventure film Territory. The film was shot on the Putorana plateau where he died. He was planning a documentary on the development of the Arctic and Russia's Northern Sea Route.

Russian media say they had been filming a training video in the Krasnoyarsk region for the ministry at the time of the accident.