- MUNICH, Germany (Reuters)
- Russian security forces used a powerful anaesthetic to knock out Chechen
rebels holding hundreds captive in a Moscow theatre, a Munich doctor treating
two German hostages said on Tuesday.
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- Thomas Zilker, head of the toxicology department of a
Munich university clinic where two freed German hostages were treated,
said he believed no mistake had been made in measuring the dosage because
it was essential the gas take effect instantly.
-
- "It was an anaesthetic. And the forensic experts
have a indication which one it is," Zilker told Reuters in a telephone
interview.
-
- The gas has been blamed for the deaths of 115 hostages.
-
- He said the suspected anaesthetic had been used in his
own hospital until a few years ago before it was replaced by a more modern
product.
-
- Russians have refused to identify the active agent in
the gas used to stun bomb-laden Chechen guerrillas threatening to kill
more than 800 hostages unless Russian troops withdrew from their southern
homeland.
-
- Zilker said the anaesthetic could be lethal if used without
control, but he did not think Russian officials had made a mistake in using
the product.
-
- "I don't think the Russians could have done a better
job in measuring the exact doses of the gas," he said. "They
had to use a high dosage for the hostage-takers to fall asleep immediately
and to prevent them from pulling triggers on their explosives."
-
- He said the deaths could have hardly been prevented.
"They would have had to be very lucky."
-
- He said the special forces decision to use the gas had
been a "good idea". "We wouldn't have come up with anything
more clever," he added.
-
- The two German hostages left hospital on Tuesday. Neither
face any permanent damage, he said.
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