'The Chechens are impatient, they say they will shoot us'

Maria Shkolnikova was in the audience expecting to enjoy what was billed as a "captivating experience" at the Palace of Culture in south-east Moscow on Wednesday night.

Little did the Moscow heart specialist know just how prophetic the description of the performance of the popular musical Nord-Ost (North-east) would be.

Although Dr Shkolnikova appeared last night to have made a successful dash for freedom, about 600 others were being held inside the theatre by Chechen rebels as their ordeal approached its third day. Many of the hostages were said to be close to nervous breakdown.

The 50 heavily-armed Chechens stormed the theatre, just three miles from the Kremlin as the second act was beginning. One of the gang fired a round of bullets into the ceiling of the packed, five-storey building, and forced the actors to sit in the front rows.

As the hours wore on, the theatre-goers used their mobile phones to tell the outside world of their plight, before the calls stopped abruptly.

"The Chechens are starting to get impatient with us. They say 'your government is doing nothing to help you'," Dr Shkolnikova told the Echo Moskvi radio station by mobile phone from inside the theatre.

"If our troops are not withdrawn from Chechnya soon, they say they'll start shooting us," she said.

Twice during the day, unexplained explosions rocked the theatre where the Chechen fighters are threatening to kill the hostages if Russian troops are not withdrawn from Chechnya within a week.

A woman was shot dead on Wednesday night as she tried to escape the rebel assault. Her body was seen being wheeled out on a stretcher yesterday.

Dr Shkolnikova said the Chechens had planted booby traps around the 1,100-seat theatre's doors and windows, laying "a huge amount of explosives" throughout the theatre. They fastened explosives in passageways, on seats and even to hostages themselves.

Load-bearing pillars had charges taped to them so that the Chechens would be able to carry out their threat to blow up the building if it was stormed by police.

Russian TV stations have been covering the hostage drama around the clock, leading to the most sweeping public debate about the war in almost three years.

But the phone calls from the hostages have added a chilling edge to the coverage.

"Please don't storm the theatre, they will kill us all," said another female hostage, Tatiana Solnyshina, who called the NTV network on her mobile phone after being allowed by the attackers to go to the toilets. "They are all carrying explosives. If you do anything, they'll blow us up." Another hostage, Alina Vlasova, told her sister by mobile phone that no one else would be released until all their demands were met.

Dr Shkolnikova, a paediatric heart specialist, was allowed out of the theatre briefly yesterday to read out a hand-written petition signed by the hostages – it was addressed to the Russian president.

"We ask President Vladimir Putin to stop military actions in Chechnya," the doctor read from the note.

"These people are very serious, they are not going to joke and may launch terrorist acts all over Russia."

Short-lived negotiations involving Russian deputies yesterday – including Iosif Kobzon, a singer beloved by Chechens – led to the release of an elderly British hostage as well as a Russian woman and her three daughters, bringing the number of released hostages to 37. Some of the actors waiting in the wings managed to scramble out of the dressing room windows.

About 600 people, including 75 foreigners, were still being held in the building last night. The foreigners include three Americans, two Britons as well as Dutch, Australians, Austrians and Germans.

Outside the building, crowds of relatives were waiting for news. "It's a nightmare," said Yekaterina Ostankhova, a woman in her 70s whose 19-year-old grandson, a theatre decorator, was inside. "What's next? This is the capital of all places. I've come here and I've heard nothing. I'm just standing here," she said.

"I would be willing to go inside, even if they kill me."

At a counselling centre set up nearby in the grey, shabby neighbourhood, distraught relatives tried to contact family members inside the building on cellular phones while snipers perched on rooftops and troops moved on the streets, sometimes jogging in formation.

Alina Vlasova, 24, said her sister Marina was so upset when she called from inside the theatre that she could barely speak. "They are standing over us with automatic rifles and are getting angrier," Alina said her sister had told her.

Russian television and radio stations broadcast the names of the freed hostages over the air. A telephone hotline was launched to provide information to worried relatives.

The hostages have no food or sanitary facilities, little water and most have not slept since the crisis began. The Red Cross was allowed to deliver medical supplies yesterday.

Mr Kobzon said that after releasing the small batch of hostages yesterday, the rebels had said they would release "no one else."

Another negotiator, liberal deputy Irina Khakamada, went to the Kremlin to see Mr Putin after meeting the guerrillas.

With food, water, stamina and hope running out, the hostages' plight looks increasingly bleak.

Few experts believe that a quick resolution of the stand-off will be possible to achieve. "This is an almost impossible situation for our security forces," said Maxim Pyadushkin, a strategist from the independent Centre for Strategic and Technological Analysis in Moscow. "They are operating in the heart of a metropolis, with little room to manoeuvre. The eyes of the world are upon them.

"One has the impression that these terrorists are ready to be martyrs, to blow themselves up with the hostages if the police try to move in. This is a nightmare for the Kremlin, and for all of Russia."