Chechen gunmen seize hostages in border raid
A group of gunmen crossed from Chechnya into the neighbouring Russian region of Dagestan today, killing at least three border guards and seizing hostages in a remote mountain village, officials said.
A group of at least 25 gunmen attacked a border guard unit on the internal frontier between Chechnya and Dagestan, killing at least three servicemen and wounding 10 others before entering the Tsunti district village of Shauri, said Roman Shchekochikhin, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry branch in southern Russia.
Shchekochikhin said the attackers seized 30-40 hostages at a school, but Basyr Magomedov, head of the Tsunti district administration, said the attackers were holding an unspecified number of hostages in a 50-bed hospital.
Other reports said the attackers had left Shauri, taking three hostages with them.
According to a spokesman for the Federal Security Service’s border guards agency in Dagestan, nine servicemen were killed in fighting with the gunmen, who officials said crossed the border hours before dawn.
