Moscow theater hostage crisis

In late October 2002 about forty Chechen militants, led by Movsar Barayev, seized the Dubrovka theater in Moscow during a performance of the musical Nord-Ost, holding some 850 people hostage and demanding the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya. After a standoff of nearly three days, Russian special forces pumped an aerosol anesthetic gas, believed to be a derivative of fentanyl, into the building and stormed it, killing the attackers. At least 130 hostages died, most of them from the effects of the gas, because rescuers had not been told what it was and medical care was inadequate. The handling of the operation was widely criticized, and the European Court of Human Rights later found that Russia had failed to plan the rescue adequately.

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