The group stormed the stage in the middle of the performance. Witnesses at the scene said the attackers were mining the building and threatening to blow it up if security forces tried to intervene.

Gunshots have been heard but it is not clear if they came from inside or outside.

A man claiming to be the leader of the group - a nephew of Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev - said he and his followers were suicide attackers who had come to Moscow "not to survive, but to die".

Russian special forces have taken up positions around the building which is at a factory site in the south of the city. It is not clear if they have established any communications with the hostage-takers.

About 150 people, mainly women and children have been released. An eyewitness told the BBC Georgians were also being allowed to leave.

The group's leader told the Chechen rebel news agency Kavkaz-Tsentr that he and his "mujahideen" followers had mines strapped to their bodies and were mining the building.

He said they were accompanied by 40 widows of Chechen fighters.

He was named as Movsar Barayev, a nephew of the late Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev.

'Blood in the aisles'

The theatre, in a factory cultural centre on Melnikov Street, was holding a performance of a popular Russian musical, North-East.

"It was the beginning of the second act," a woman who managed to escape from the theatre told Russian media.

....The audience and those people released said the attackers, who consisted of men wearing combat uniforms and women in veils, had explosives strapped to their bodies.

Up to five actors who managed to escape from the building told reporters the entire building had been booby-trapped

....Our correspondent in Moscow says the Chechen rebels have been threatening to strike in Moscow, so this was probably a well-planned operation. I assume by now you notice the missing word from all of these reports: "terrorists."

ADDITIONAL UPDATE
Per reader John Tobin, Pravda doesn't hesitate to characterize the situation as involving terrorists:

A group of between 20 and 30 kamikaze Chechen terrorists stormed a packed Moscow theatre tonight, threatening to blow the building up unless their demands are met. It is feared that due to the fact that their demands are unrealistic, they will prefer to become martyrs, rather than prisoners.

At 22.57 MSK, the group of 20/30 terrorists entered the Palace of Culture theatre in Melnikov Street, South-East Moscow, which was showing the first Russian-produced musical, Nord-Ost, and started placing explosives around the perimeter of the building, according to eye-witnesses inside the theatre who were using their cellular phones. The terrorists then told the children and Moslems in the audience that they were free to go (these numbering around 150 people) and demanded an end to the war in Chechnya. They claim that if the police storm the building, they will detonate the explosives and for every one of their number killed, they will execute ten hostages.

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