Moscow Nanny Gulchekhra Bobokulova beheads child
Gulchekhra Bobokulova, a nanny form Uzbekistan, is accused of beheading a child in Moscow Reuters

An Uzbek nanny who was filmed holding up the severed head of a young girl outside a Moscow metro station has pleaded guilty to murder.

Gyulchekhra Bobokulova, 38, went on trial in Moscow on 24 October. She had been hired to care for the murdered four-year-old girl.

Her translator confirmed her guilty plea to journalists, Interfax reported.

She was arrested in February after being filmed holding up the child's severed head and declaring: "I am a terrorist."

Investigators said she murdered the child and then set fire to the family's apartment and fled.

Psychologists have concluded that Bobokulova has a "chronic mental disorder", and the judge is expected to commit her to a mental institution, according to Interfax.

In a police interrogation video posted online in March, Bobokulova claimed she killed the child to avenge civilians killed by Russian air strikes in Syria. Russian authorities though said there was no evidence that she was connected to terrorist networks and people who claimed to know her in her native Uzbekistan said she was mentally ill and had been treated for schizophrenia.

Russian state media was accused of suppressing reports of the attack, which has led nationalists to call for greater restrictions on the number of migrants from Muslim-majority central Asian republics entering the country.