Gunmen Hold 700 Hostage In Moscow Theatre A gang of up to 30 gunmen have stormed a Moscow theatre and are holding an audience of up to 700 people hostage. An Interfax news agency reporter among the audience said the gunmen had let people make phone calls and allowed children to be released. Muslim members of the audience attending the musical production of "North-East" were also allowed to leave, Interfax said. Police said they had as yet received no demands from the gunmen. 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 had been informed of the incident, which happened on the eve of his official visit to Europe.
First the French ship, now a Moscow hit. Two security council countries blocking US and Britain. Could this possibly be planned to force a war? If they take out those hostages, when and where will the carnage stop??
Chronicle link: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1630159 one report is the gunmen are laying mines!
after the Bali thing,,,who knows. But the new link seems to say it is completely internal to Russia. Sorry for thinking the worst, although this is about the worst it can get for Moscow...then again, the Chechnyan's are regarded as freedom fighters.
At lunch I saw on CNN about a Russian Plane that was stopped in New York just minutes after this happened.
<A HREF="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=1&cid=578&u=/nm/20021023/ts_nm/russia_theatre_hostage_dc"> Armed Men Seize Hundreds in Moscow Theater</A> <i> MOSCOW (Reuters) - Up to 30 armed men held hundreds of people inside a Moscow theater staging a musical late Wednesday, firing shots in the air, police and news agencies said. A Reuters reporter close to the theater said he had heard four to five gunshots near the building. It was not immediately clear who fired the shots or whether they came from inside the building, where some 700 people were being held. There were no initial reports of casualties. 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 say 20 to 30 gunmen had seized the theater, known as the former House of Culture in Melnikov Street in southeast Moscow. Neighboring buildings were being evacuated. 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. A man close to tears told a Reuters correspondent at the scene: "My friend's wife is trapped inside. She said there are about 700 people trapped inside." That figure corresponded with the police estimate although the exact number remained unclear. Police anti-terrorist teams poured into the scene and sealed off the area. A city bus blocked off traffic while police cars closed off side streets to all traffic except ambulances. Around 50 police were on the scene, some marshaling a large crowd that gathered behind the police cordon. </i>
Agents Meet Aeroflot Jet at JFK By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Federal agents met an airliner from Moscow at Kennedy Airport on Wednesday after receiving a tip that it may have radioactive material on board, law enforcement officials said. A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that the Aeroflot plane was ordered to keep its distance from the passenger terminals. ``They had advance information of possible radioactive materials for us to be looking at this flight,'' the official said. The official would not elaborate on the information. Innvestigators were allowing the plane's 176 passengers off the flight in small groups. ``The only thing I can tell you is that it's because we're intending to interview one of the passengers on the plane,'' FBI spokesman Joe Valiquette said.
A more detailed writeup. <A HREF="http://www.gazeta.ru/2002/10/23/Chechensuici.shtml">Chechen suicide troops hold 700 hostages in Moscow theatre</A>
If they let Muslims go, then they may be terrorists. Oh...that's right....terrorists have no problem killing Muslims. They only dislike when their not the ones killing Muslims. My bad.
