There is still no precise information with regards to the number of hostages and terrorists killed. At first officials stated that during the course of the hostage rescue operation 37 terrorists were killed (RIA News). Then it was reported that the number was 34, and later — 42 (Interfax), and later still 50 terrorists: 32 men and 18 women. Since October 29th the last official tally has been 41 terrorists.

Then Moscow attorney general Mihail Avdyukov, while reporting information about bodies with gunshot wounds taken from the theatrical center, stated that there were 45 people killed in this manner:
41 terrorists;
2 persons who were not included among the hostages — Moscow resident Olga Romanova, who was shot by the terrorists when she attemped to enter the theater, and an as yet unidentified man who was killed by the terrorists while trying to enter the building the day before the assault;
2 dead hostages bore gunshot wounds. They had been shot by terrorists before the beginning of the assault.

The official number killed by gunshots remains unchanged.

But, judging from everything, the number of hostages dying from gunshot wounds needs to be increased, or the number of terrorists must be decreased, and the officials must admit that some of the dead hostages were mistaken for terrorists.

The fact is, that more bodies of dead hostages have been found with gunshot wounds.

According to official data there were only two hostages who died from bullet wounds, and they had been shot by the terrorists.

One of these, as was reported today by the famous pediatrician, Leonid Roshal, at a press conference, «received injuries incompatible with life» — ie, a bullet in the head, according to Interfax. Relatives of the deceased report to us that the name of the dead hostage was Pavel Georgievich Zaharov — a graduate of MISI Moscow Science Institute. He had been working at the Engineering Research Center SNIIP in Moscow for the last year, and died before the assault began.

Olga Chernyak of Interfax, who had been one of the hostages, reported that early on Saturday morning the terrorists «killed two hostages in front of us — a woman and a man. The man was shot in the eye, and there was a lot of blood… I was sitting in the middle of the hall, and it all happened right next o me.» Today it has been reported that the woman was only wounded, the bullet passed through her and hit the man in the eye. Tamara Starkova was evacuated to Veteran's Hospital #1, and is in stable condition, according Dr Roshal via Interfax..

And so, going by the official data, one dead hostage still remains unaccounted for.

According to the authorities, the terrorists killed no one else. The law-enforcement agencies reported that during the assault special operations soldiers did not kill any of the hostages. Izvestiya quoted one of the 'Alfa' group commanders: «we killed all the terrorists and didn't even scratch a single hostage, none of our soldiers were injured during the assault.».

Now, however, among the hostages listed as missing or as having died from suffocation, cardiac failure, or as a result of aggravated chronic illnesses, a few bodies have turned up with gunshot wounds. Information about this is contained on the lists of those who died, which for more than a week have been circulating on Russian Internet publications.

Among the dead, killed either by the terrorists or during the assault:
Denis Petrovich Gribkov, age 30, died of gunshot wounds
Alena Polyakova, age 12, died of gunshot wounds.

The shootings of these two hostages were not officially recorded, possibly since they were not brought to hospitals. According to his relatives, Gribkov's body was found at Forensic Morgue #4, at 25 Volhovsky Alley, along with the bodies of the terrorists. He had been taken there straight from the theater.

No matter how hard you try, you cannot consider Gribkov the unidentified man who entered the theater just before the assault, because Gribkov had been among the spectators since the beginning of the muscal. Gribkov could be the second hostage killed by the terrorists before the assault, but it cannot be ruled out that he may have been mistaken for a terrorist during the assault. He may have been shot and sent to the morgue with the terrorists because he was assumed to be with them.

As far as 12-year-old Alena Polyakova is concerned, there is absolutely no official information.

Thus, there are 3 bodies for the two official deaths: Pavel Zaharov, Denis Gribkov, and the girl Alena Polyakova.

The latest issue of Versiya, which was almost not published because of threats from the FSB, asserts that 300 hostages perished at 'Nord-Ost'.

Reporters with the paper had gathered information the day after the release of the hostages that the number of hostages was considerably larger than reported officially. Proof of this assertion was forcibly taken from the paper's editorial offices, and reported here: FSB grabs information of the assault from editors

According to Versiya's sources in the special operations group, whose information was received by reporters the day after the hostage rescue operation,
firstly, the number of hostages was much greater than the official count — 750 hostages passed through Checkpoint 16 at Dubrovka, not counting the dead or those taken to hospitals;
secondly, the paper's sources at the Health Ministry reported that the number killed during the assault on the Dubrovka theater was about 300.

There is no way to check this information, Versiya reports, since all morgues have been off-limits since Saturday morning, and placed under police guard.

The journalists were able to find out that within Forensic Morgue #4 were 42 dead from 'Nord-Ost'.

Journalists from the newpaper Den simultaneously drove to all the city morgues and hospitals, but even though they were unable to gather complete figures, they counted 169 persons who were known to have been at the musical and had disappeared without a trace.

The official tally of the dead is 120. The list, howver, contains 121 surnames.

Today it was officially declared that the number of those who perished as a result of the seizure of hostages by terrorists at the theatrical center in Moscow has been set at 120 persons. According to RIA News, a press secretary for the Moscow Health Department reported that a 20-year-old Moscow resident had died last weekend «from cardiac insufficiency» at Veteran's Hospital #1. Later it became known that her name was Natalya Malenko.

So, there are 120 people on the list. If one does not count Olga Romanova, who was not a hostage, then the information thus far corresponds to the official tally of those killed.

But still unknown is the fate of another 92 persons who were known to be at the musical, and are listed as missing, and whose existence the Moscow city attorney continues to deny. Gribkov and Polyakova are also listed among these missing persons.

The Moscow city attorney again refutes that the missing were among the hostages.

The Moscow city attorney again as on last Thursday refuted media reports that there are unidentified persons among the hostages.

«All former hostages have been identified, all the dead have been identified, there is no one missing,» read a press release by the directorate of information and community relations for Russian Attorney General's Office to Interfax on Monday.

As was emphasized by the attorney general, any statements by any of the relatives of former hostages that they cannot find their loved ones among those who were seized by terrorists on October 23rd, will for now not be acted upon.

Recall that the Georgian and Ukrainian embassies continue to search for 3 of their citizens who disappeared at 'Nord-Ost'. A statement by the extraordinary and plenipotentiary envoy of the Republic of Georgia in Russia, Teymuraz Gamtsemlidze, concerning the search for two Georgian citizens was broadcast by the radiostation Moscow Echo. The press center for the Ukrainian embassy in Russia also reported that a search was on for a missing Ukrainian, according to a report today by Interfax.

As of today there are 92 people listed as missing.

The total number of hostages at the Dubrovka theatrical complex on 984 persons.

The responsible agencies can get rid of all these questions about who was shot, suffocated, missing, written off, or hospitalized in an instant. All they have to do is publish all their lists of hostages, including those who died. Then the hundreds of «fake hostages» that the Attorney General keeps talking about can easily be revealed.

stands at

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