In rehearsal last night, the director asked that we dedicate our art to the 1,000 hostages at the Moscow. At the time he thought there were 150 hostages. No, sir. 1,000. Good think this isn't Bombay; the cast alone of the musical would have exceeded 1,000.

I wonder how many of them were tied to their seats before the Chechens arrived?

Blasts rock Moscow theatre

At least two explosions have been heard near a Moscow theatre where Chechen rebels have been holed up with 500 hostages for nearly 24 hours. \

The Russian news agency Itar-Tass said the noise was the sound of grenades being fired by the gunmen at two young women escaping from the building, but the report has not been confirmed.

The blasts occurred shortly after Russian authorities declared that a female hostage had been shot dead.

Police in Moscow told the BBC they believed that the woman, in her twenties, was killed while trying to escape during the night. Her wrists and fingers had been broken, they said, contradicting earlier statements that she had died of an illness.

But a spokesman for the Chechen hostage-takers insisted in a telephone call to the BBC that none of the hostages had been harmed, reiterating however that his group was prepared to kill.

Shortly before the woman's body was carried out of the building, the hostages appealed directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin to settle the crisis by meeting the rebels' demands.

"We beg you to take a sensible decision and to halt military actions in Chechnya. There have been enough wars," heart specialist Maria Shkolnikova said in a brief appearance outside the theatre on behalf of the hostages.

"Today we have ended up in a life-or-death situation. We have parents, brothers, sisters and children. We greatly value their lives. We beg you to resolve the issue by peaceful means," she said, reading out a hand-written letter.

The rebels said they would start shooting hostages if the authorities failed to act on their demand for a withdrawal of troops from the breakaway southern republic of Chechnya, where Russian forces have been fighting separatists since 1994.

The gunmen released as many as 200 members of the audience, mainly women and children, shortly after bursting into the building in south Moscow. And on Thursday morning they let a British man, three children and a woman go.

But Russian MPs negotiating with the hostage-takers say they appear to have no plans to release any more, and that the situation is deteriorating.

Some of the hostages, said deputy Valeriy Draganov, were now in a very "serious condition", worsened by the fact that the rebels were refusing them the hot food which the authorities had offered.

Many of those still being held inside the theatre have been tied to seats.

However, Mr Draganov said there were no plans at present to storm the building.

In his first televised statement since the drama began, President Putin said the attack had been planned in "foreign terrorist centres", and ordered his security chiefs to ensure the release of the hostages unharmed.

The BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Moscow says the crisis is a major humiliation for Mr Putin. He has cancelled a trip to the Asia-Pacific summit in Mexico on Saturday, where he was due to meet US President George W Bush.

He has also been forced to put off visits to Germany and Portugal.

Two other Britons are reported to be among the hostages, along with seven Germans, four Americans, two Canadians, two Austrians and two Dutch citizens. Ambassadors from several countries are now at the scene.

The audience had been watching a performance of the hit musical Nord-Ost when the drama started.

US President Bush has telephoned Mr Putin to offer America's support.

A senior Russian Government official, Alexei Volin, said the security forces had two priorities: to save the hostages and make no concessions to the attackers.

But the Russian authorities have reportedly told the rebels that they will guarantee them safe passage to another country if all the hostages are freed unharmed.

Confirming that the security service had made contact with the group, Mr Volin rejected the idea that the hostage-takers could force a withdrawal from Chechnya.

"Hostage-taking does not stop wars, it fans them even further."