Chechen fighters attacked police and army buildings in a southern Russian town today leading to at least 44 deaths in a series of gun battles.
A Russian Interior Ministry soldier aims his machine gun as an officer uses a radio at the outskirts of Nalchik, southern Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2000 by talking tough on Chechnya, ordered his security forces to surround the town of Nalchik and kill any gunman who put up resistance.
"The city has been taken under firm control. Not one car, not one train, not one bus will go past without being closely checked," said Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin.
"Now our main task is to find the bandits in the city, including their wounded." Officials said two small groups of fighters were holed up in a police station and in a shop and were holding small numbers of hostages.
Justice officials said in a morning of mayhem in which up to 100 rebels attacked key security points in Nalchik, main city of the Muslim Kabardino-Balkaria region near rebel Chechnya, 12 residents were killed as well as 12 policemen.
Deputy state prosecutor Vladimir Kolesnikov said 20 fighters were killed and 12 of their number captured by security forces.
Several corpses lay in the streets in pools of blood and covered over with blankets during the attack, which wound down by around midday.