Hijacker killed as Russia siege ends

Russian forces begin storming the bus

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A hijacker holding at least 23 people on board a bus in Russia has been killed as forces successfully stormed the vehicle.

One hijacker, believed to be a Chechen rebel, was shot dead by a sniper, but none of the hostages were seriously injured, police said, though some were slightly hurt by broken glass.

Members of Russia's elite Alpha forces, part of the Federal Security Service (FSB), had thrown smoke grenades at the bus as they stormed the vehicle in a 10-minute operation at Mineralniye Vody airport. It is still unclear whether any other hijackers were involved.

Police said they believed that one or more people aboard may have been accomplices of the gunman. Some news agencies said there were as many as 41 hostages.

Igor Trubitsyn, spokesman for the Stavropol branch of the FSB, said the dead hijacker had been armed with one grenade, 2.2 lbs of TNT and one Kalashnikov submachine gun.

AUDIO "Russian officials are elated at end of the siege" 40 secs / 358 KB AIFF or WAV sound   VIDEO Russian security forces surround the bus (July 31) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MORE STORIES Chechnya sparks decade of kidnaps     RESOURCES Message Board: Changes in Russia

The hijacker was identified as Sultan-Said Idiyev, an ethnic Chechen, the Interfax news agency quoted regional prosecutor Robert Adelkhanyan as saying.

The bus was seized on Tuesday morning by at least one gunman who demanded the release of five Chechens jailed in connection with a similar hijacking in the region seven years earlier.

CNN correspondent Ryan Chilcote said Russian officials were "elated" that the operation had been completed without serious injuries to any of the hostages.

He reported gunfire after the standoff over the hijack reached deadlock earlier with a succession of demands from the hostage taker.

Chilcote said the gunman had demanded six more sub-machine guns, ammunition and a helicopter at one stage, which had been turned down.

It was first thought two Chechens seized the bus carrying 35 people near the southern city of Stavropol. The bus was then driven to the airport, about 900 kilometres (550 miles) south of Moscow.

Russian Special Forces officers head for the scene of the hijacking

Two agents from the FSB negotiated with a kidnapper, a man in his early 30s named Aslan. It was unclear whether he was acting alone or if a second, and even third gunman, had disguised himself among the bus passengers.

Television footage had earlier shown armoured cars massed at the scene and commandos creeping through high grass.

The bus, which had been parked on an overpass 400 metres from the terminal building, was pictured with windows pushed out and people peering out from behind curtains.

Chilcote said conditions were very hot (104 degrees F) and the gunman, who was given a radio, had asked for water and food for himself and the passengers and according to one report he had asked for ice cream.

There were 35 passengers and one driver when the bus was hijacked on its way from Nevinnomyssk to Stavropol at about 7 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Tuesday. The Stavropol branch of the FSB told CNN that the hijacker shot a passenger, threw him off the bus, and demanded to be taken to the Mineralniye Vody airport.

Halfway to Mineralniye Vody at a militia checkpoint the gunman opened fire and one man was injured. Twelve people were later freed, including the injured, women and children.

Russian Interior Minister Boris Grylov had refused to give an inch to the hijacker in a "carefully calculated" operation.

Putin informed

Mineralniye Vody ("Mineral Waters") is a popular resort town in the Caucasus Mountains about 120 kilometres from Chechnya and has been the scene of bus hijackings and bomb blasts in recent years.

In the May 1994 incident, believed to be linked to Tuesday's hijacking, four Chechen kidnappers seized a school bus on its way from Vladikavkaz to Stavropol. They freed most of the children, but took four hostages on a helicopter across southern Russia with explosives and a ransom.

Police commandos seized the armed men and freed the hostages after the helicopter landed at Bachayurt in Chechnya.

The kidnappers were charged and jailed. Two of these are believed to be among the six prisoners that Tuesday's hijacker or hijackers want freed.

Earlier in 1992, two armed hijackers seized a bus with 18 passengers in Mineralniye Vody and demanded the release of two jailed friends. The hijackers fled to Chechnya and were given asylum by rebels. In March, 21 people were killed in a bomb blast at the market in the city.

Blaming Chechen separatists for a series of kidnappings in the south in the early 1990s, Russia used the incidents as a pretext for moving troops into the rebel province in late 1994.

News agencies said President Vladimir Putin, who is at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, about 250 km (150 miles) from the scene preparing for the summit of former Soviet states, was immediately informed about the incident.