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Rescue Efforts in Grozny Continue
Aired December 27, 2002 - 14:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to Chechnya, where rescue crews are searching for survivors after a suicide bomber set off a ton of explosives. Twin blasts destroyed a government building, killing dozens of people. CNN's Jill Dougherty was just in Grozny. She joins us from Moscow with the latest on the attacks. It is ironic, Jill. We were just talking about this yesterday.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: We were, and it's sad irony. President Putin, in fact, tonight calling this attack inhuman and he said that the people who carried it out are -- quote -- "waging a war on their own people."
And in this attack, the latest figures are 46 dead, 76 injured. Where this happened was at the government building downtown in Grozny, and that was one of the most highly protected buildings in the entire city. So the question, of course, is how could -- it appears to be two suicide bombers get through three check points with about a ton of explosives?
They did that. They got up close next to that building, just after lunch hour, when there were about 200 people -- an estimated 200 people working in that building, plus people on the street. And when the bombs went off, two blasts very close to each other, when they went off, one person who survived it said that it was literally like an earthquake, and it left the building, No. 1, a giant crater in front of the building, and also, that building itself simply a shell, a burned-out shell.
The rescue crews have been working tonight. It's very difficult, because when that happened, it blew out the power to that area. So even as they've been able to take people away to a hospital that was very close by, the reports are that there is no power in the hospital, and surgeons actually have had to work by candlelight.
And again, this comes at the very moment that the Russian government was trying to prove that things were back to normal. Obviously, they're not back to normal. In fact, now, security has been tightened there. And there are steps being taken even here in the Moscow region to make it a lot more secure around various installations.
There's concern that the terrorists, the rebels, want to take more action again against the Russian government -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Jill Dougherty, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 27, 2002 - 14:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to Chechnya, where rescue crews are searching for survivors after a suicide bomber set off a ton of explosives. Twin blasts destroyed a government building, killing dozens of people. CNN's Jill Dougherty was just in Grozny. She joins us from Moscow with the latest on the attacks. It is ironic, Jill. We were just talking about this yesterday.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: We were, and it's sad irony. President Putin, in fact, tonight calling this attack inhuman and he said that the people who carried it out are -- quote -- "waging a war on their own people."
And in this attack, the latest figures are 46 dead, 76 injured. Where this happened was at the government building downtown in Grozny, and that was one of the most highly protected buildings in the entire city. So the question, of course, is how could -- it appears to be two suicide bombers get through three check points with about a ton of explosives?
They did that. They got up close next to that building, just after lunch hour, when there were about 200 people -- an estimated 200 people working in that building, plus people on the street. And when the bombs went off, two blasts very close to each other, when they went off, one person who survived it said that it was literally like an earthquake, and it left the building, No. 1, a giant crater in front of the building, and also, that building itself simply a shell, a burned-out shell.
The rescue crews have been working tonight. It's very difficult, because when that happened, it blew out the power to that area. So even as they've been able to take people away to a hospital that was very close by, the reports are that there is no power in the hospital, and surgeons actually have had to work by candlelight.
And again, this comes at the very moment that the Russian government was trying to prove that things were back to normal. Obviously, they're not back to normal. In fact, now, security has been tightened there. And there are steps being taken even here in the Moscow region to make it a lot more secure around various installations.
There's concern that the terrorists, the rebels, want to take more action again against the Russian government -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Jill Dougherty, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
