Candles and prayers for Russia's dead

Russians observed a national day of mourning for the dead hostages of the Moscow theatre siege yesterday, with white, red and blue Russian flags flying at half mast or draped with black ribbons.

Under the torn sign for Nord-Ost, the musical that nearly 800 people were enjoying at the concrete Soviet era House of Culture when Chechen rebels took them hostage, thousands of grieving Muscovites laid flowers and teddy bears.

Others attended memorial services, lit candles, or simply stood outside the theatre in the cold and wept. "My heart is broken," said one elderly local woman who lives near the theatre, wiping away her tears.

In the days since the three-day siege ended, relief has turned to bewilderment, and then to anger, as the stunned nation counts the growing and mostly self-inflicted cost of storming the theatre.

Many people expressed sympathy with President Vladimir Putin's decision to send in crack troops to storm the building. Lyudmila Yeemelyanova said: "There was no other way. If the explosives inside had gone off, not only the theatre but all the neighbouring buildings would have been destroyed."

But after presenting the dawn attack as a triumph in which almost all the hostages were saved, the Russian authorities are now suffering a backlash. "They poisoned us like cockroaches" one woman was quoted as saying in the Kommersant daily newspaper under the headline "Overdose".

The official death toll of hostage victims from the gas used to knock out the hostage takers was still at 117. But another 45 former hostages are in a critical state and many have yet to regain consciousness.

Doctors say they have not yet been told which gas was used. The gas may have been an opiate, a chemical related to morphine, US Defence Department officials said.

Exhausted survivors discharged from hospital yesterday were reunited with relatives who waited two days after the end of the siege to be allowed to see them. "I feel great now," said Nikholai Zhizen, in his twenties. "He's alive," his father shouted.

Two hundred and thirty nine people have been released from hospital and more were to be discharged later last night.

Unlike the public outcry after the failure to rescue the crew of the Kursk nuclear submarine in 2000, there is acceptance the authorities had little choice but to act as they did. But questions remain. Andrei Piontkovsky, the director of the independent Centre for Strategic Studies in Moscow said: "It now appears that they acted to save their own prestige, not the lives of ordinary citizens."

After Russian special forces stormed the building on Saturday morning, President Putin lamented the loss of life and begged "forgiveness" from the Russian people. But it took two days for the medical authorities to admit that only two hostages were killed by terrorists. Many of the victims' relatives had received no official information about the fate of their loved ones by last night.

Irina Flige, a leader of the Russian human rights group Memorial, said yesterday: "The feelings and concerns of ordinary people do not touch our leaders' hearts. We have once again clearly seen that the average Russian has as much to fear from his own authorities as from terrorists and bandits."