Funerals Held for Moscow Victims

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 30, 2002

Funerals Held for Moscow Victims

Weeping relatives tossed dirt on the coffin of Col. Konstantin Litvinov as Russians began to bury the hostages killed in a standoff with Chechen rebels.

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Weeping relatives tossed dirt on the coffin of Col. Konstantin Litvinov as Russians began to bury the hostages killed in a standoff with Chechen rebels.

Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov told the ITAR-Tass news agency that several dozen people had been detained in Moscow on suspicion of helping organize the takeover. They included a group of Chechens picked up in a minibus that allegedly had traces of TNT, the Interfax news agency reported.

As of Tuesday, 245 rescued hostages remained hospitalized, 16 listed in serious condition, Interfax reported. A total of 418 patients have been released. Among the dead were nine foreigners, including one American, Sandy Booker of Oklahoma City.

At a Moscow cemetery, Russian soldiers in heavy green coats marched under gray, rainy skies to pay their final respects to Litvinov, who was in the audience of the "Nord-Ost" musical production with friends when the terrorists struck. Litvinov's body was laid out in uniform, surrounded by dozens of red carnations, as his anguished wife and grown children stood nearby.

Across town, friends of a 25-year-old engineer and theater lover, identified by Russian television as Alexei Batchkov, gathered on the muddy paths of the Kuzminskoye cemetery around a freshly dug grave. Russian television showed them throwing clumps of earth over the coffin.

Source: Agencies

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