World News 30-10-2002 Kremlin Accused Of Concealing Poison Gas Death Toll who: US ambassador Alexander Vershbow what: Says Kremlin put lives at risk by refusing to name poison gas used to end siege. where: MOSCOW when: Yesterday snippet: US ambassador to Moscow Alexander Vershbow has criticised the Kremlin "for withholding the name of the gas used to end the three-day theatre siege," reports The Guardian`s Nick Paton Walsh. "US embassy officials have expressed increasing frustration at not knowing what kind of gas the hostages, who included four American residents, were exposed to. They said this made effective treatment difficult." Although there are conflicting reports on the figures and indeed the entire debacle, 117 hostages and 50 Chechen rebels appear to have died as a result of inhaling gas deployed by Russian special forces on Saturday morning to end the siege at a theatre in Melnikova Street, Moscow, where 800 people were being held captive by terrorists. The Telegraph reports on the "growing suspicion" that the Kremlin "is concealing the true death figure... in an attempt to stifle criticism of its tactics". Between 70 and 100 theatre patrons are thought to be unaccounted for and "Russian officials have failed to issue an estimate of the total number of people in the theatre when it was seized". The Mirror reports that the mystery gas "was a derivative of Opium". Following comments from a US spokesman yesterday, reporter Neil Roberts speculates that the gas "may have been derived from Fentanyl, a synthetic opiate" which is "50 times more potent than heroin and known to abruptly paralyze the respiratory system". [... more]

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