Theatre hostage taking law-suit

Relatives of those who died in the bloody hostage siege four years ago at a Moscow theatre said they plan to sue officials for negligence over the bungled rescue operation.

Chechen militants seized the theatre on October 23, 2002, during the second act of the musical Nord-Ost, taking about 800 people hostage and demanding that Russian authorities end the war in Chechnya.

Three days later, Russian special forces pumped a narcotic gas into the theatre to knock out the hostage-takers, and then stormed the building, killing all 41 captors.

The attackers failed to detonate any of their explosives, and nearly all the 130 victims died of the effects of the gas.

Officials insisted that hostages died because they were weakened by the effects of their captivity.

However, victims’ families say that the authorities did not provide proper medical care to the freed captives, accusing them of failing to have enough ambulances on standby.