HeXp£Øi±
Well-Known Member
The theatre can seat 1,163 viewers
A loud explosion has been heard in the Russian capital Moscow at a theatre where Chechen rebels are holding up to 800 people hostage.
The blast occurred at 0915 local time (0515 GMT), but it was not clear whether it came from inside or outside or whether security forces had started to storm the building.
It happened after overnight attempts to negotiate the release of the hostages appeared to have failed.
Dozens of heavily armed Chechen rebels are holding the hostages at gun-point after invading the hall in the south of the city in the middle of a sell-out evening performance. The group's leader, Movsar Barayev, says they are a Chechen "suicide" unit demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
A brief burst of gunfire was reported from inside at 0605 (0205 GMT).
The rebels told the Chechen rebel news agency Kavkaz-Tsentr they had shot a woman Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who tried to enter the theatre, ignoring their warnings.
Correspondents at the scene, who are being kept at a distance of 200 metres (yards) by police, could not establish the cause of the shooting or confirm the death while the FSB itself has not commented on the claim.
The BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Moscow says the crisis is a major humiliation for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has cancelled a planned visit to Germany and Portugal.
Two Russian politicians of Chechen extraction, Aslanbek Aslakhanov and Ruslan Khasbulatov, tried to mediate overnight but made no progress. A senior Russian Government official, Alexei Volin, said the security forces had two priorities: to save the hostages and make no concessions to the attackers.
Confirming that the FSB had made contact with the group, he rejected the idea that the hostage-takers could seriously force a withdrawal from Chechnya:
"Hostage-taking does not stop wars, it fans them even further."
Appeals
Mr Khasbulatov, a former speaker of the Russian parliament, described how the hostages were coping inside the theatre for the BBC after his attempt to mediate:
"They're not very good - I mean, it's a concert hall and as you can imagine, the people aren't very happy. "There are women there. They have released children, but it's not clear if they've released all the children. It's a very difficult situation for us."
The attackers are believed to be holding between 400 and 800 hostages, mostly members of the audience but also theatre staff.
They were trapped when the group burst into the auditorium just as the second half of Nord-Ost, a hit Russian musical, was beginning at the theatre.
The attackers allowed people to contact the media by mobile phone to pass on their demands. One woman hostage, Tatyana Solnyshkina, told Russian TV that the attackers were ready to kill 10 hostages for any one of their number killed if the security forces intervened.
"Please, do not storm the building," she said, adding that the attackers had a "very large amount of explosives".
Other witnesses who either escaped or were freed by the rebels described seeing men and women with explosives strapped to their bodies and wielding assault rifles.
The rebels are believed to have freed about 40 people, including women, children, Muslims and some foreigners, Russian police say.
Rebels disowned
The attackers' leader, a nephew of the late Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev, said he and his followers were "suicide attackers" who had come to Moscow "not to survive, but to die".
"Nobody will get out of here alive and they will die along with us if any attempt is made to storm the building," Movsar Barayev told Kavkaz-Tsentr by telephone. He said that his "mujahideen" gunmen and 20 Chechen women, whom he described as widows, were holding more than 1,000 hostages.
But a spokesman for the official Chechen rebel leadership told the BBC he had no information about who the attackers were and condemned attacks on civilians.
"We condemn any terrorist attacks against civilians," said Aslanbek Khadiev, a representative of rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov at the Hague.
"We don't have any information about that group," he said, adding that he believed they might be "some disparate Chechens trying to bring attention to the situation in Chechnya".
The official leader of Chechnya's Muslims, Mufti Akhmad-Khadzhi Shamayev, condemned the attack on Russian TV:
"Terrorists have no nationality. If they are indeed Chechens and if they are Muslims, they must have at least something sacred in them... They are just giving their nation a bad name."
A loud explosion has been heard in the Russian capital Moscow at a theatre where Chechen rebels are holding up to 800 people hostage.
The blast occurred at 0915 local time (0515 GMT), but it was not clear whether it came from inside or outside or whether security forces had started to storm the building.
It happened after overnight attempts to negotiate the release of the hostages appeared to have failed.
Dozens of heavily armed Chechen rebels are holding the hostages at gun-point after invading the hall in the south of the city in the middle of a sell-out evening performance. The group's leader, Movsar Barayev, says they are a Chechen "suicide" unit demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
A brief burst of gunfire was reported from inside at 0605 (0205 GMT).
The rebels told the Chechen rebel news agency Kavkaz-Tsentr they had shot a woman Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who tried to enter the theatre, ignoring their warnings.
Correspondents at the scene, who are being kept at a distance of 200 metres (yards) by police, could not establish the cause of the shooting or confirm the death while the FSB itself has not commented on the claim.
The BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Moscow says the crisis is a major humiliation for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has cancelled a planned visit to Germany and Portugal.
Two Russian politicians of Chechen extraction, Aslanbek Aslakhanov and Ruslan Khasbulatov, tried to mediate overnight but made no progress. A senior Russian Government official, Alexei Volin, said the security forces had two priorities: to save the hostages and make no concessions to the attackers.
Confirming that the FSB had made contact with the group, he rejected the idea that the hostage-takers could seriously force a withdrawal from Chechnya:
"Hostage-taking does not stop wars, it fans them even further."
Appeals
Mr Khasbulatov, a former speaker of the Russian parliament, described how the hostages were coping inside the theatre for the BBC after his attempt to mediate:
"They're not very good - I mean, it's a concert hall and as you can imagine, the people aren't very happy. "There are women there. They have released children, but it's not clear if they've released all the children. It's a very difficult situation for us."
The attackers are believed to be holding between 400 and 800 hostages, mostly members of the audience but also theatre staff.
They were trapped when the group burst into the auditorium just as the second half of Nord-Ost, a hit Russian musical, was beginning at the theatre.
The attackers allowed people to contact the media by mobile phone to pass on their demands. One woman hostage, Tatyana Solnyshkina, told Russian TV that the attackers were ready to kill 10 hostages for any one of their number killed if the security forces intervened.
"Please, do not storm the building," she said, adding that the attackers had a "very large amount of explosives".
Other witnesses who either escaped or were freed by the rebels described seeing men and women with explosives strapped to their bodies and wielding assault rifles.
The rebels are believed to have freed about 40 people, including women, children, Muslims and some foreigners, Russian police say.
Rebels disowned
The attackers' leader, a nephew of the late Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev, said he and his followers were "suicide attackers" who had come to Moscow "not to survive, but to die".
"Nobody will get out of here alive and they will die along with us if any attempt is made to storm the building," Movsar Barayev told Kavkaz-Tsentr by telephone. He said that his "mujahideen" gunmen and 20 Chechen women, whom he described as widows, were holding more than 1,000 hostages.
But a spokesman for the official Chechen rebel leadership told the BBC he had no information about who the attackers were and condemned attacks on civilians.
"We condemn any terrorist attacks against civilians," said Aslanbek Khadiev, a representative of rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov at the Hague.
"We don't have any information about that group," he said, adding that he believed they might be "some disparate Chechens trying to bring attention to the situation in Chechnya".
The official leader of Chechnya's Muslims, Mufti Akhmad-Khadzhi Shamayev, condemned the attack on Russian TV:
"Terrorists have no nationality. If they are indeed Chechens and if they are Muslims, they must have at least something sacred in them... They are just giving their nation a bad name."
