WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday made the shock decision to fire his FBI director James Comey, the man who leads the agency charged with investigating his campaign´s ties with Russia.

"The president has accepted the recommendation of the Attorney General and the deputy Attorney General regarding the dismissal of the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation," White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters.

A search for a new FBI director was to begin "immediately," the White House said in a statement.