The daring siege, thrusting ordinary Muscovites into the frontline of the distant Chechen war, was ended with a mixture of pride and pain: more than 750 hostages were freed and most of the captors killed, but the cost is that at least 117 hostages lost their lives.

Almost all of the 117 toll in the Moscow hostage crisis have sofar died of the impact of a special gas, except one who was shot dead in the head.

Andrei Seltsovsky, Chairman of the Moscow Health Committee, said on Sunday that the gas affected their respiratory and blood circulation systems and resulted in the loss of consciousness, the doctor told a press conference.

Moscow's chief anesthetist Yevgeny Yevdokimov said the gas was a general narcotic substance used in surgery as anesthesia. The death was caused by a too larger doze, he said.

According to Seltsovsky, nearly 650 of the hostages, who were released Saturday from a three-day holding by Chechen gunmen, remain in hospital. Some 150 of them were now in intensive care and 45 in serious condition, he said.

Seltsovsky said the latest the death toll was 117, including 63men and 54 women, with only 51 of them identified so far.

Moscow hospitals on Sunday began releasing some former hostages,but most were being kept for further treatment.

In a nationwide televised address on Saturday, President Vladimir Putin praised the rescue operation proved Russia "can not be forced to its knees," and apologized to the relatives of the dozens of victims.

"We have not been able to save all. Forgive us," said Putin, condemning the terrorism as a "strong and dangerous, inhuman and cruel enemy."

Police officials said at least 67 hostages were killed during the operation, but the Health Ministry later put the death toll to above 90.

Some 50 hostage-takers, including their leader Mosvar Barayev, were killed on the spot and three others detained. Security services searched the enormous capital for attackers and accomplices who may have escaped.

The blood-drenched end came 58 hours after heavily armed gunmenseized the theater on Wednesday evening during a musical performance, threatening to shoot at hostages and blew up the whole building if the government did not meet their demand to pull federal troops out of Chechnya immediately.

Despite the death toll, a hostage relative agreed the operationwas necessary. "My daughter was inside the theater and I am deadlyafraid of large explosions or mass killings," Lijia Dumayeva told Xinhua at the NO. 13 hospital, where some 340 injured hostages were receiving medical treatment.

Dumayeva said she had made telephone contacts with his daughter,whom she said was now "very weak".

Hundreds of injured hostages, many of them were unconscious andunable to walk in an apparent gassed-down shape, were sent to 24 hospitals nearby. Relatives could check the name lists at the rescue center to make sure which hospital their beloved ones were sent to.

Dumayeva said she and her husband were not allowed to enter thehospital to see their daughter.

To be an anxious mother as the same, Zoya Safena is much unluckier than Dumayeva, as she still did not know the fate of her40-year-old daughter almost eight hours after the end of the siege.

"I checked all lists, but can not find her name. I does not know whether she is alive or dead, where is she?" said the 71-year-old mother, who could not help bursting into tears.

"The whole incident is a terrible nightmare ... I do not hate any one, I just hope I can get my daughter back and will never seesuch a tragedy," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2002)