MOSCOW, October 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Chechen fighters late Wednesday October 23, claimed responsibility for the seizure of several hundred hostages in Moscow, on their Internet website kavkaz.org.

Around 20 gunmen declaring themselves to be Chechens took hundreds of people hostage in a Moscow theatre and threatened to blow up the building if security forces try to storm the premises, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The gunmen are demanding "an end to the war," according to a freed hostage, apparently a reference to the three-year Russian war on Chechnya.

It was unclear exactly how many hostages were in the theatre, but one of musical's producers, Alexander Tsikalo, told Channel One television that it "could be up to a thousand."

Hostages inside the theatre who managed to contact police by telephone said the gunmen had begun placing bombs in the building and that they "looked like men from the Caucasus," said ITAR-TASS.

Witnesses said all the gunmen have explosives strapped to their bodies.

The gunmen call themselves "suicide commandos of the 29th division," a journalist for Interfax reported from inside the theatre.

The journalist said the gunmen used the mobile phones of hostages to warn security forces not to launch an assault.

ITAR-TASS quoted witnesses as saying that the gunmen told the audience that they were Chechens.

They also threatened to kill ten hostages for every one of their number who died, Moscow Echo radio reported, quoting informed sources.

ITAR-TASS quoted law enforcement sources as saying that the gunmen belonged to a group led by Movsar Barayev, the nephew of Chechen leader Arbi Barayev, who was killed in June 2001 according to the Russian military.

The theatre is a former cultural center for a factory in southeast Moscow that is currently hosting a musical comedy called "Nord-Ost," one of the city's most popular shows.

An AFP correspondent outside the building heard shots being fired.

Two armored personnel-carriers took up position in front of the main entrance to the theatre, the AFP correspondent said.

Around 100 heavily armed soldiers have also arrived at the scene.

The Interfax journalist inside the theatre said that some of the gunmen were armed with automatic weapons, adding that they had allowed some 20 children in the audience to leave the building.

They had also allowed members of the audience to make telephone calls, the journalist said.

ITAR-TASS reported that a dozen men had also been freed.

An anti-terrorist security force was at the scene, a source at Russia's FSB security agency told Interfax.

According to ITAR-TASS, around 09:00 pm Moscow (1700 GMT), several cars stopped in front of the theatre and a dozen men armed with automatic weapons got out, blocked the exit and took the audience hostage.

Technical staff from the theater gave anti-terrorist forces plans of the building seized by the gunmen, Tsikalo said.

Russia describes its three-year war against independence-seeking Muslim Chechnya as an "anti-terrorist" war to suppress an Islamic insurgency.

It regularly claims to have uncovered evidence of contacts between the Chechens and Islamic backers.

The conflict has cost the lives of at least 4,500 Russian soldiers.

It has also cost the lives of about 20,000 Chechen civilians.

The Chechnya tragedy started during the Soviet era, when Stalin, in order to maintain power and to avoid being overthrown “by external powers manipulating internal ethnic groups”, was brutal in his control of the Chechen people.

The Chechens therefore actually said they would welcome Germany if they recognized an independent Chechnya.

This led to a mass deportation and relocation of Chechen people (and others) to Kazakhstan and Siberia.

Around 800,000 people are said to have been relocated this way. Perhaps 100,000 or more of these people died due to the extreme conditions.

Chechnya declared independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia is now engaged in a full-scale war with Chechnya. There have been many reports of bombing raids by Russian forces and over 200,000 people are said to have fled from Chechnya.

Grozny and other parts of Chechnya are being pounded and destroyed.

Civilian casualties have been high and there has been international outcry at the brutal Russian crackdown and indiscriminate bombing and targeting of civilians.

The Russian troops have been looting and burning homes and buildings, even executing those who resist.