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Hostages choked on gas
26/10/2002 10:48 - (SA)
Moscow - Some of the hostages who died on Saturday during an assault on a Moscow theatre may have been poisoned by gas Russian special forces released into the building to disable Chechen separatist gunmen, Moscow Echo radio reported.
Several hostages may have choked on their own vomit, a likely
effect of the gas, the radio station quoted doctors as saying.
Up to 30 hostages died during the operation, Moscow mayor Yury
Luzhkov said.
Two of the rescued hostages earlier said there had been a strong smell of gas inside the building shortly before the storming began.
"Gas was injected into the theatre and we were hoping that this wasn't going to end up like the Kursk," Natasha Skobtseva said,
referring to the Russian nuclear submarine that sank in the Barents
Sea in August 2000, with the loss of all 118 men on board.
Officials in a crisis centre set up to deal with the crisis said 32 of the 50 rebels had been killed.
Russian security forces raided the theatre in a southeast Moscow suburb to end the three-day ordeal of some 700 people taken hostage
by Chechen separatists who had been threatening to execute them if
Russian authorities did not withdraw troops from Chechnya.
- Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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