Nearly 650 of the released Moscow theatre hostages remain in hospital and more than 200 are in a very serious condition, Russian medical authorities said on Sunday.
They said that the death toll so far was 117.
It was the first time that the Russian authorities have given precise figures on the number of hospitalised victims from the dramatic siege by the Chechen rebels at a Moscow theatre.
The Interfax news agency quoted Andrei Seltsovky, the head Moscow city doctor, as saying 646 people were still in hospital, including 150 who were in intensive care wards and 45 who were in a very serious condition.
Seltsovsky said that the death toll stood at 63 men and 54 women. Only 51 of the dead had been identified, he said.
Moscow hospitals on Sunday began releasing some of the former hostages, but most were being kept for further treatment.
Earlier, President Vladimir Putin asked Russians to ”forgive us” for being unable to save all hostages held by Chechen rebels when a special forces unit attacked the Moscow theatre in the rescue operation.
”Forgive us, we were not able to save everyone,” Putin said during a televised address to the nation.
Chechen hostage-takers seized more than 800 people at a theatre on Wednesday and had threatened to start killing them early on Saturday if Russia did not withdraw its forces from Chechnya.
In his short address, Putin said the outcome of the hostage drama ”proves that Russia cannot be brought to its knees”.
”This morning, an operation to free the hostages was launched. We achieved the near-impossible, saving hundreds, hundreds of people. We proved that Russia cannot be brought to its knees. But now I want to address the families and friends of those who died. We were not able to save everyone. Forgive us,” he said.
Russian officials justified the assault on the theatre in which 50 Chechen rebels died by arguing that all the hostages would have been killed had they not done so.
Putin expressed thanks for messages received from foreign leaders lending ”moral and practical support in the fight against our common enemy”.
”This is a strong and dangerous enemy, an inhuman and cruel enemy. This is international terrorism. As long as this enemy has not been vanquished, people will not be able to feel safe anywhere in the world.
”But this enemy must be vanquished. And this enemy will be vanquished,” he said.
Putin said that he had spoken with one of the survivors of the hostage crisis in hospital, and had been told by the man: ”I wasn’t afraid. I was sure the terrorists would have no future.”
Putin added: ”He was right. They have no future. But we do.”
Putin’s promptness in addressing the families of the victims of the hostage drama contrasts with his actions at the time of the sinking of the Kursk submarine in August 2000, in which 118 people died.
Then, in what commentators were describing as the lowest point of his presidency, he was seen on television in shirt-sleeves declining to cut short a holiday on the Black Sea coast while in the North Sea there appeared to be some hope of saving some of the submariners.
After the hostage crisis erupted ON Wednesday, Russian media lashed Putin for his government’s failure to prevent Chechen rebels striking at the heart of Moscow, and his popularity and authority were seen as likely to suffer.
Opinion polls indicated that Russians were increasingly inclined to seek a negotiated settlement with Chechen separatists, in contrast with Putin’s persistent refusal to make concessions.
Two out of three Muscovites questioned in a survey on Thursday said they favoured a negotiated outcome to the hostage drama.
Specialists said Saturday’s special forces raid had been a relative success in a high-risk situation in which several hundred hostages could have been killed.
Military analysts said the hostage-seizure would have been likely to harden attitudes on both sides of the conflict whatever the outcome had been.
Putin has consistently sought to assimilate Russia’s
anti-insurgency campaign in Chechnya with the international fight against terrorism, and his televised address made it appear unlikely that he was considering giving up his hardline approach. – Sapa-AFP