- (AFP) -- Armed Chechen rebels holding hundreds of hostages
in a Moscow theatre opened fire through a side-door, a journalist from
Moscow Echo radio who is among the captives said.
-
- "We can't understand why it's happening. There is
panic among the hostages, they are begging not to start an assault under
any circumstances," the Interfax news agency reported her as saying.
-
- Two gunshots were heard earlier by AFP correspondent
near the theatre, apparently from outside the building.
-
- More than 1,000 hostages are being held by Chechen rebels
in a Moscow theatre according to a headcount by the captives, one of the
people detained told Moscow Echo radio on Thursday.
-
- The hundreds of hostages held by armed Chechen rebels
in a Moscow theatre are terrified that Russian security forces will launch
a bloody assault, one of the captives told the radio station.
-
- "We are really afraid that it will be the same as
Budyennovsk. It was all calm, people around me can remember, then the assault
began and people were killed," said the woman, a cardiologist called
Maria, speaking by mobile phone.
-
- In June 1995, Chechen rebels took several hundred people
hostage in a hospital at Budyennovsk, in southern Russia. The drama ended
in tragedy with more than 100 civilians dying when Russian troops stormed
the hospital.
-
- "We really don't want there to be an assault. We
want for the first time to have a peaceful resolution, which would be unprecedented
in our country," she added.
-
- The rebels were holding the hostages Thursday, demanding
an end to the war in Chechnya and theatening to blow up the theatre building
if security forces tried to storm it.
-
- Heavily armed troops and police, including snipers, surrounded
the theatre in the southeast of the city.
-
- A Moscow police spokesman said that between 40 and 50
rebels, both men and women, had stormed in at 9:00 pm Wednesday (1700 GMT)
during a performance of a musical comedy called "Nord-Ost," one
of the city's most popular shows.
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