Lethal chemical now used as a drug haunts theater hostages
Lethal chemical now used as a drug haunts theater hostages
By ERIKA KINETZ and MARIA DANILOVA
Oct. 7, 2016 4:43 AM ED
SHANGHAI (AP) — Early one morning in October 2002, a dense white cloud silently filled Moscow's Dubrovka Theater.
It had been three days since Chechen militants took more than 800 people hostage. Russian special forces faced an impossible task: liberating the hostages from a theater laced with booby traps and several dozen suicide bombers. They turned to chemicals Russian scientists had been researching for years, and pumped an aerosol containing potent forms of the synthetic opioid fentanyl into the theater before storming it.
As the mysterious substance descended, people knelt, covering their faces as best they could, according to eyewitness accounts. No one was choking. People simply dropped into what appeared to be a deep sleep.
"I lay down and started praying," said Vladimir Stukanov, the director of the children's troupe at the theater. His friend, Boris Lapin, had given him his coat, which Stukanov pressed to his face. "Boris died, but saved me," he said.
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