Animal rights groups on Wednesday said gunfire killed a beluga whale nicknamed Hvaldimir, which became famous in Norway after its unusual harness sparked suspicions the creature was trained by Russia as a spy.

The organizations NOAH and One Whale said they had filed a complaint with Norwegian police asking them to open a “criminal investigation.”

He was found dead on Saturday in a bay on Norway’s south-western coast.

His body was transported on Monday to a local branch of the Norwegian Veterinary Institute for autopsy.

The report is expected “within three weeks”, a spokesperson for the institute said.

Regina Crosby Haug, the head of One Whale, who said she had viewed Hvaldimir’s body on Monday, told AFP: “He had multiple bullet wounds around his body.”

“The injuries on the whale are alarming and of a nature that cannot rule out a criminal act – it is shocking,” the NOAH director, Siri Martinsen, said.

“Given the suspicion of a criminal act, it is crucial that the police are involved quickly,” she said.

Nicknamed Hvaldimir in a pun on the Norwegian word for whale, hval, and the first name of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the white beluga first appeared off the coast in Norway’s far-northern Finnmark region in 2019.