The Moscow Theatre Siege (2004)

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In October 2002, Chechen terrorists took a thousand people hostage in a Moscow theatre and threatened to kill them..Three days later Russian special forces stormed the theatre using a secret gas to knock everybody out… 129 hostages died – apparently killed by the very gas that was meant to save them… terrific episode of  ‘Horizon’ that investigates the mystery substance, and why so many died…

The Moscow theater hostage crisis, also known as the 2002 Nord-Ost siege, was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater on 23 October 2002 by some 40 to 50 armed Chechens who claimed allegiance to the Islamist militant separatist movement in Chechnya. They took 850 hostages and demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and an end to the Second Chechen War. The siege was officially led by Movsar Barayev. After a two-and-a-half day siege, Russian Spetsnaz forces pumped an unknown chemical agent into the building’s ventilation system and raided it…. Wikipedia

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