RUSSIA: Police set up a heavy presence outside a theatre in Moscow last night as hundreds of people were taken hostage inside.
The car park in front of the theatre, where an American-produced musical was showing, was filled with vans and cars from Russia's security service, the FSB.
Police in riot gear established a clear rectangle in front of the theatre, which is in a former Soviet-era House of Culture in Melnikov Street in southeast Moscow. Moscow's Mayor, Mr Yuri Luzhkov, was at the scene last night.
Police cleared neighbouring buildings as a security cordon was thrown up around the area. A city bus blocked off traffic while police cars closed off sidestreets to all traffic except ambulances.
A journalist for Interfax reported from inside the theatre that the gunmen have warned security forces, using the mobile phones of hostages, not to launch an assault.
The gunmen say that they have mined the entire building and call themselves "suicide commandos of the 29th division", the journalist said.
The musical is based on Veniamin Kaverin's novel, Two Captains, which recounts the story of two students and their different destinies during Soviet times.
The producer, Mr Alexander Tsekalo, said the theatre could hold 1,163 people. According to the theatre's website, more than 350,000 people have seen the production since it opened.
The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the incident, which happened on the eve of his official visit to Europe.
A Chechen separatist website said the raid was led by Movsar Barayev, the nephew of feared Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev, who was killed in June 2001, according to the Russian military.
"They have one demand: stop the war and start a rapid withdrawal of the Russian occupiers in Chechnya," the rebel site, kavkaz.org, said.
If the armed gang is confirmed to be Chechen, the Moscow hostage-taking incident would be the most audacious such attack since the first Chechen war of 1994 to 1996.
A temporary peace settlement was achieved in 1996 leaving the separatists to run the republic while officially postponing a decision on independence until 2001, an agreement overtaken by events.
Although Russian officials have repeatedly said they are winning the war in Chechnya, which revived in 1999 when Russian troops were sent in to quash a revolt by nationalists, fighting has been particularly intense in recent weeks.
Moscow accuses the Chechens of using Georgia as their base and Mr Putin threatened to use aircraft to strike against Georgian territory in September. Russian troops encircled a village just inside Chechnya and killed 80 Chechen rebels in September. A dozen Russians and a British journalist, Roderick Scott, were killed.
- (Guardian Service, Reuters)