Russians name opiate gas used in raid

RUSSIA said yesterday the gas used in its disastrous Moscow theatre raid was based on Fentanyl, a fast-acting opiate with many medical applications.

Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko said the compound was an anaesthetic and could not cause death, the news agencies reported.

The gas was used to knock out Chechen terrorists who had taken hundreds of hostages in the theatre. At least 119 of the hostage-takers' victims were felled by the gas.

Yesterday's announcement about Fentanyl appeared to be an attempt to counter criticism, especially by foreign governments, that Russian officials were being too secretive and that lack of information about the gas may have increased the number of fatalities.

But Shevchenko said the deaths were caused by the use of the chemical compound on people who had been starved of oxygen, were dehydrated, hungry, unable to move adequately and under severe psychological stress. Dr. Thomas Zilker, a toxicology professor at Munich University Clinic in Germany, said Wednesday that blood and urine samples from two Germans among the former hostages showed traces of halothane, a gas used as an inhaled anaesthetic. He said he believed the gas pumped into the theater likely also contained other substances.

Meanwhile, two more hostages died in hospital from the gas, bringing the death toll of victims to at least 119.

In an opinion poll, 85% approved of President Vladimir Putin's actions during the crisis and 82% said they approved the law enforcement agencies' actions.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev also praised Putin's handling of the crisis.

"In those extreme circumstances that Russia lived through, Putin acted coolly and responsibly," Gorbachev wrote in a newspaper today.