Hostage crisis grips Russian press

Russian press websites reflect the shock felt by Muscovites riveted by the capital's biggest hostage crisis for years.

Chechen women, blinded with hatred, beat hostages with rifle-butts in the theatre

Pravda

According to the Izvestia newspaper, quoting Chechen rebel leader Movladi Udugov, a female spectator among the hundreds of theatre-goers held hostage has been killed.

"This is an attempt to spread panic among the relatives," the paper says.

Quoting unnamed US administration sources, it says the Chechen hostage-taking could be a "co-ordinated attempt to destabilise the world situation," along with Bali bombing and a recent attack on a French tanker Limburg off Yemen.

"The White House says al-Qaeda has close ties to Chechen armed groups and gives them funds," Izvestia adds.

It says the REN-TV channel is trying to enter the theatre, and has apologised for violating Russia's media law by giving "terrorists" air time.

The channel justifies this as an attempt to save lives, Izvestiya says.

'Biggest hostage-taking'

An Ekho Moskvy radio reporter among the hostages phoned to say the armed group was ready to exchange 50 hostages for Russia's head of administration in Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov, according to Gazeta newspaper.

Thirteen schools in the vicinity are staying closed, and the Moscow Education Department has asked schools "with children of various nationalities" to take special care of their charges.

Commenting on the "biggest ever hostage-taking in Russia", Gazeta says flats are being evacuated on Melnikov Street, and it is "possible that police anti-terrorist units are to take up position in them" in the event of an assault on the building.

'Beating with rifle-butts'

Pravda headlines its account "Foreigners among the hostages" - suggesting that the police might refrain from storming the building.

There were heavy casualties when Russian forces attacked a hospital to end another Chechen mass hostage-taking in the town of Budennovsk in 1995.

The paper has heard that the authorities offered the "suicide-bombers" a flight to any third country of their choice in return for freeing the hostages.

But "it is hardly likely that any country will want to accept them in the current situation," since the 11 September terror attacks, it says.

For Pravda, it is "more likely that the hostage-takers will go for the 'Budennovsk option' and demand safe passage to Chechnya, in which case they will want to take the hostages as a human shield".

"Chechen women, blinded with hatred, beat hostages with rifle-butts in the theatre," says another Pravda headline, suggesting - if true - that conditions in the hall are deteriorating.

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.