The Soviet Palace of Art was holding a performance of
                              the musical Nord-Ost (North-East), one of the Russian
                              capital's most popular productions.

                              Police estimated the hostage count to be between 700
                              and 900 people. The Interfax news agency said one of
                              its reporters was inside the theater at the time of the
                              raid. She told them in a telephone call that the men fired
                              automatic weapons into the air and were preventing the
                              audience from leaving, the agency said.

                              Alexander Tsekalo, the musical's producer, told Russian
                              television that the theater holds 1,163 audience
                              members, approximately 60 actors and 35 musicians
                              are involved in the production and about 35 theater
                              personnel are present at every performance. He
                              speculated that about 1,000 people would be in the
                              building for a regular Wednesday performance.

                              According to Izvestiya newspaper, at least 20 gunmen,
                              some of whom were armed with automatic weapons,
                              had allowed all members of the audience to make phone
                              calls and children and Muslim audience members were
                              allowed to leave.

                              A woman who made her way out of the theater said in
                              an interview on Russia's NTV television that men
                              wearing camouflage went on stage, fired in the air and
                              said: "Don't you understand what's going on? We are
                              Chechens. We are not hiding it."

                              Russian television reported the gunmen claimed they
                              were raiding the theater to draw attention to the war in
                              Chechnya and to advocate an end to the conflict. The
                              gunmen also warned police not to storm the building
                              and said that any dead gunman would result in ten dead
                              hostages.


above from www.foxnews.com