Up to 700 people believed to be held hostage in Moscow

DRoseDARs · October 23, 2002, 14:45

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...tre_hostage_dc

Up to 30 Armed Men Seize Moscow Theater
8 minutes ago

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Up to 30 gunmen, seized a Moscow theater staging a musical late Wednesday, firing shots in the air and holding a number of people hostage, police and news agencies said.

Interfax news agency, one of whose reporters was in the theater at the time, said the gunmen had let members of the audience make phone calls and allowed children to be released.

Muslim members of the audience attending the production of "North-East" were also allowed to leave, Interfax said. Police said they had as yet received no demands from the gunmen. Reports put the number of gunmen in the theater between 20 and 30.

Elite police teams rushed to the scene but there were no initial reports of casualties. Police said they believed up to 700 people were attending the show but exact numbers remained unclear.

The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) had been informed of the incident, which happened on the eve of his official visit to Europe.

Eli · October 23, 2002, 14:53

Nothing the Spetznaz cant handle...

Eli · October 23, 2002, 14:55

Hehe.

Now it's our turn to call relatives in Russia and check whether they're fine.

I hope this will teach them how annoying it is having them calling us after every blast.

DinoDoc · October 23, 2002, 15:30

Does that mean we can expect less news reports from you Eli?

Az · October 23, 2002, 15:44

Sure hope the alpha will get the *******s, btw.

Pavlov · October 23, 2002, 15:55

This will end in a nasty way, for someone.

N. Machiavelli · October 23, 2002, 16:03

True enough. Regardless, I hope they are able to get the hostages out unharmed.

Kassiopeia · October 23, 2002, 16:16

Ack. What I've heard of the Russian SORB or OMON or whatever that special forces unit was... bodies. Lots of them.

Arrian · October 23, 2002, 16:23

Holy ****! No wonder the Moscow Times website just jammed up on me! Thanks for the news. Here's hoping none of the hostages die.

-Arrian

Andrew1999 · October 23, 2002, 16:26

My dad has been trying for a while to persuade someone to go to Moscow on a student or teacher exchange. He hasn't been having much success for some reason...

JtheJackal · October 23, 2002, 16:32

Thanks for more info, the Breaking News Info on CNN wasn't giving me much information

Arrian · October 23, 2002, 17:09

The reuters article I saw indicates that the hostage-takers are demanding an end to the war in Chechnya (sp). Accordingly to someone in the threatre on a cell phone, the gunmen were planting mines of some sort.

-Arrian

trickey · October 23, 2002, 17:42

Damn thats is freaking crazy....cant even feel safe going to a theater anymore..

Sirotnikov · October 23, 2002, 17:45

But they are do gooder!!!

Team Alpha are hell's fukkaz. I can't promise any of the 1000 people held up there will survive, but 99% of team Alpha will, and 99% of the terrorists will be ready to hang dry.

Btw, how would you think Sayeret Matkal / Duvdevan/ Gideonim / Yamam would handle this?

Nubclear · October 23, 2002, 17:57

!!!!!!!

My wife is in moscow right now!!!

Saint Marcus · October 23, 2002, 18:02

Quote:

Team Alpha are hell's fukkaz. I can't promise any of the 1000 people held up there will survive, but 99% of team Alpha will, and 99% of the terrorists will be ready to hang dry.

been playing to much counterstrike?

don't you think the terrorists will just blow the whole place up as soon as the first commando is sighted?

The diplomat · October 23, 2002, 18:20

You have 40 to 50 terrorists and hundreds of hostages, and to make matters worse, there are mines.

I don't think any commando unit could take down the terrorists without hostage casualties in that situation. There are just too many terrorists and too many hostages.

You would have to find and eliminate all the terrorists so fast that they would not have time to detonate the explosives or shoot any hostages, plus you would have to make sure you did not accidently hit a hostage while taking aim at the terrorists.

DinoDoc · October 23, 2002, 18:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Saint Marcus
don't you think the terrorists will just blow the whole place up as soon as the first commando is sighted?

I certainly wouldn't want to be in Chechnya if they do.

notyoueither · October 23, 2002, 18:37

Holy sh**!

I hope this works out, but it has the makings of being very grim.

I hope your wife is safely out of the area Tass.

DinoDoc · October 23, 2002, 18:54

Quote:

Moscow, Oct. 23 — Up to 20 armed men seized a Moscow theater in the middle of a performance on Wednesday, firing shots into the air and taking the audience of between 700 and 1,000 people hostage, the Federal Security Service and witnesses said. The gunmen, some of them wearing explosives, demanded an end to the war in Chechnya and began laying mines in the building, according to news reports.

RUSSIAN NEWS AGENCIES reported that the hostage takers, at least one of whom was a woman, warned police officials not to attack the theater because they had rigged it with explosives.

There were also unconfirmed reports that the hostage takers threatened to shoot 10 people for every hostage taker who was injured or killed.

According to NBC News in Moscow, a Russian member of parliament who is Chechen by decent was inside the building, attempting to negotiate with the hostage takers.

Earlier, according to a Russian television source, the attackers had demanded to see the identification of those inside, allowing foreigners, Georgians and others from the southern Caucuses region of Russia to leave.

Those who were freed reported seeing traces of blood inside the auditorium as they left.

President Vladimir Putin was reportedly holding an emergency meeting with military officials and had ordered that security be tightened around Moscow’s oil refineries, power stations and government buildings.

BETWEEN 700 AND 1000 IN THEATER

The theater was holding a performance of the musical Nord-Ost, one of the Russian capital’s most popular productions. The producer of the musical, who was outside the auditorium, said there could be as many as 1,000 people in the theater, including the cast and crew of the production.

Other reports estimated that around 700 people were in the theater.

Interfax news agency, one of whose reporters was in the auditorium at the time, said the gunmen had let members of the audience make phone calls and allowed 20 children to be released.

Muslim members of the audience also were allowed to leave, Interfax said.

CHECHEN WAR CONNECTION

Russian news agencies reported that in a conversation with a member of the cast, he overheard a hostage taker speaking the Chechen regional language saying: “Now we have a war.”

In an interview with The Echo of Moscow radio station, a boy who was freed also said the armed men were from the Caucasus region and that they demanded an end to Russia’s war against the largely Muslim region.

Moscow is involved in an ongoing conflict in Chechnya, which is seeking independence from Russian rule.

The Chechens, one of the fiercest nationalist groups in the country, battled the Russian czars in the 19th century before being finally defeated.

The Chechens were deported en masse by Stalin to Kazakhstan in 1944 for allegedly betraying the Soviet Union and supporting Hitler. They were allowed to return to their homes in 1957.

The Chechens declared independence from the Soviet Union shortly before it collapsed in 1991. Since then, they or their sympathizers have been involved in a number of hostage-taking situations in southern Russian provinces, especially in Dagestan.

Slain Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev helped force Russia to the negotiating table by leading a bloody raid on the town of Budyonnovsk in a neighboring Russian region in June 1995. His fighters briefly took more than 1,000 hostages and escaped back into Chechnya. More than 100 civilians died.

Russian forces left Chechnya in 1996 after a disastrous two-year war but returned in 1999 after rebels raided a neighboring region and Russian authorities blamed rebels for a series of apartment bombings in Russia that killed more than 300 people.

PLAN ‘THUNDERSTORM’

Sources in law enforcement told the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass that the hostage takers may belong to a group led by notorious Chechen field commander Movsar Barayev.

Police units and an Alpha special forces unit went to the scene and sealed off the area in the freezing, wet weather. The Federal Security Service, the successor to the Soviet KGB, and the Interior Ministry put plan Thunderstorm into effect, which required all officers to report to their units.

An AP reporter saw two ambulances, but it was unclear what connection they had with events in the theater.

The theater is in southeastern Moscow in a working class neighborhood.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was immediately informed of the hostage taking,

Nord-Ost, or Northeast, is based on Veniamin Kaverin’s novel “Two Captains.” The romantic novel recounts the story of two students and their different destinies during the Soviet times.

The theater’s producer, Alexander Tsekalo, said on Russian television that the theater could hold 1,163 people.

According to the theater’s Web site, more than 350,000 people have seen the production since it opened.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/824951.asp?pne=msn

Sonic · October 23, 2002, 20:11

After the cruel things Russian army does in Chechenya this is not surprising at all. I bet however Russian Alfa will kill all the terrorists and no hostages (or some number under ten) will be killed.

Most recent news from Lithuanian TV: it seems terrorists set 300 people free after some negotiations.

JCG · October 23, 2002, 20:33

All I can do is hope for the least painful end to all this...

Xeones · October 23, 2002, 21:26

St Marcus, read your post again and youll see the quote and your thoughts are in fact the same end. special forces lives, terrorists die, hostages? ... shrug.

and how dare they steal headlines from the USAs sniper situation!? stupid international media! (<- sarcasm)

Serb · October 23, 2002, 22:16

Quote:

Originally posted by Sonic
After the cruel things Russian army does in Chechenya this is not surprising at all. I bet however Russian Alfa will kill all the terrorists and no hostages (or some number under ten) will be killed.

Shut the **** up you ****ing mother****er. There are hundreds of people here. HUNDREDS. And no one there will believe in your ****ing lies about glorious freedom fighters. The whole world declared war over terrorism if you didn't noticed. You ****ing nazi scum.

Quote:

Most recent news from Lithuanian TV: it seems terrorists set 300 people free after some negotiations.

There were no negotiations. The terrorists released all Chechens, Georgians and Abkhazians who were in theater as soon as they took control over theater.

Serb · October 23, 2002, 23:12

The representative of Chechnya in Russian parlaiment and representatives of Chechens who live in Moscow offered themselves to become hostages in exchange for release of children.
Our thanks to those brave people.
The reply of terrorists is not received yet.

There is a lot of children there. Nord-Ost is "family musical" many characters in this musical played by childrens and there are a lot of childrens who come to see this musical.

TV just said that president of US made a declaration about the situation. He said that Americans are praying for hostages and that nothing can't justify such actions.
Thanks for support Americans.

1 · October 23, 2002, 23:24

Russia should just threaten to nuke all of Chechnya if the terrorists don't surrender. Be like.... fine u want and end of the war? We'll nuke it all, then it will be over! The terrorist would have a loose loose situation....stay and be responible for nuking their home country, or leave and be arrested.

ranskaldan · October 23, 2002, 23:31

omg, I really hope you're joking.

hint: it's tasteless.

Dr Strangelove · October 24, 2002, 00:20

IIRC Chechens were doing some pretty terrible things at the outset of the war too. They declared Chechnya under Sharia law and began terrorizing non-muslims. Chehnya is one of the seven countires in the world were homosexuality carries a death sentence.

Closer to home, police are now looking for a John Allen Mohammed (a.k.a. Williams) in connection with the DC sniping spree.

Is al-Qaida trying to prove that they're still around?

David Floyd · October 24, 2002, 00:22

Quote:

Shut the **** up you ****ing mother****er. There are hundreds of people here. HUNDREDS. And no one there will believe in your ****ing lies about glorious freedom fighters. The whole world declared war over terrorism if you didn't noticed. You ****ing nazi scum.

On the other hand, I'm sure Russia has killed its fair share of civilians in Chechnya. Not intentionally in all cases, perhaps, but they have no business there to begin with.

Not that seizing the theater is justified - I'm just saying that Russia's no saint either.

Hopefully everything will come out all right, and no one will get hurt. Terrible tragedy, though

Boris Godunov · October 24, 2002, 00:33

Serb, if you want to refute his arguments fine, but that kind of garbage you typed is absolutely out of line and only makes you look like an ass.