October 23rd
At about 10PM a police cordon is set around the building.
10:26PM President Putin was informed about the capture.
At 11PM the plan “Storm” was put in action; according to it all police and FSB officers must arrive to their sections. The security of the buildings where power bodies are located as well as vitally important objects of the city’s infrastructure is reinforced. The mayor Luzhkov arrived to the building as well as highly ranked officials from the police, the FSB, the Prosecutor General and the Ministry of emergency situations. Operational headquarters were organized. They were headed by the deputy director of the FSB, Vladimir Pronichev. SOBR, OMON, Sofrin’s brigade, FSB sections Alfa and Vimpel and other special units were called to Dubrovka.
By midnight the traffic on the neighboring streets is completely stopped. The police cordoned off the journalists and the crowds of idlers. The operational headquarters attempt to contact the terrorists. By midnight without setting any condition the terrorists have released some dozens of hostages, among whom children, women, Muslims and some foreign citizens, in particular Georgians. Ten people escaped through the windows of secondary rooms.
At midnight the Caucasus-Center agency published information saying that the taking of hostages was done by a unit of suicide bombers under the leadership of Movsar Barayev. The Chechens have only one request – “stop the war and begin the immediate withdrawal of the Russian occupation troops from Chechnya.” “The Chechen mujahideen have come to Moscow in order to die and not to survive,” the agency cited commander Barayev. Besides the agency affirmed that the militants have shot the FSB officer Olga Romanova, 26 years old who tried to get into the building. (Later it turned out that the woman was blind drunk.)