Chechen rebels holding 600 hostages in a Moscow theater agreed today to free 75 foreign captives, a Russian security official said.
The promise came after the rebels killed a woman and threatened to blow up the theater unless Russia pulls its troops out of their homeland.
Moscow embassies were asked to send representatives to the scene to meet their freed citizens, the Federal Security Service said. The foreigners in the theater include three Americans, as well as Britons, Dutch, Australians, Austrians and Germans.
Two women managed to escape the theater yesterday by climbing through a window. As they scrambled away from the building, the Chechens fired a grenade launcher, wounding one of the women.
The rebels, about 40 men and women who call themselves a suicide squad, stormed the theater at 9:05 p.m. Wednesday as an audience of 700 watched a live musical.
They shot a woman who tried to escape – after breaking her fingers.
Later, they released more than 100 women and children, who sobbed and shook as they emerged from the theater, which has a capacity of 1,163 people.
The terrorists made threats on a Chechen Web site and through hostages to blow up the building unless their demands were met.
Hostage Maria Shkolnikova, a cardiologist, said by cell phone that the rebels had planted explosives all around the theater, in halls, on seats and even strapped to hostages themselves.
The rebels “are saying, ‘You have been sitting here for 10 hours, and your government has done nothing to secure your release.’ The main thing is that troops must be pulled out or they will start shooting people,” she said.
“People are close to a nervous breakdown,” she added.
Three male rebels appeared early today on Russia’s NTV, wearing camouflage and carrying assault rifles.
The only unmasked man was identified as the ringleader, Movsar Barayev, nephew of rebel warlord Arbi Barayev, who died last year.
The network also showed two female hostage-takers wearing head-to-toe robes that revealed only their eyes.
Arabic script was printed on their hoods, and pistols were cradled pistols on their chests. They wore explosives around their waists wired to a button in their hands.
Earlier, the Arab satellite-TV station Al-Jazeera – which has broadcast messages from Osama bin Laden – showed tapes of the rebels saying they were ready to die and to kill their “infidel” captives.
The speakers, their faces covered, stood before a banner written in Arabic script that declared, “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.”
“I swear by God we are more keen on dying than you are keen on living,” said a male rebel dressed in black.
With Post Wire Services