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Dozens freed from hijack plane

passenger
A woman who was on the hijacked plane receives aid  

MEDINA, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Hijackers released about 60 passengers from a Russian plane being held in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, hours after they seized it, a Saudi journalist told CNN.

Saad al-Matrafi, a reporter for Arab News, in Jeddah, said Saudi officials at the airport were still negotiating with the hijackers, and their demands were not yet known.

He said up to 110 people were still on board the aircraft.

Officials in Medina had been negotiating with up to four knife-wielding men who hijacked the aircraft with 174 people on board after take-off from Istanbul on Thursday afternoon. See map of plane route.

"We do know that the Saudi forces are getting nearer and closer to the plane but the negotiations are still going on," Saad al-Matrafi said.

"Saudi officials clarified that they are trying to negotiate very peacefully. The main concern of the Saudi officials is the safety of the passengers."

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Saad al-Matrafi, journalist: "We do not know why the hijackers stopped releasing the passengers"

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Terry Taylor, Institue for Strategic Studies: "It's Saudi Arabia which is responsible for the plane now"

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Steve Harrigan in Moscow: Relatives are in stunned disbelief.

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CNN's Jane Arraf in Istanbul: "This is definitely an embarrassment for the Turkish Government"

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CNN's Jane Arraf in Istanbul: "Hijackers may be Chechens"

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Khaled Al-Maeena, journalist: "There's nothing religious about it"

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It was also not immediately clear whether the flight crew, who had reportedly barricaded themselves in the cockpit, were among the freed hostages.

At least one person was wounded when the men took control of the Russian Tupelov Tu-154 plane at 1:30 p.m. (7:30 a.m. ET).

The Russian Government said it believed the hijackers were from Chechnya, the southern republic that has been in a state of war with Russia for more than a year.

Saudi state television showed a group of mostly women and children in a waiting hall helped by Saudi personnel on Thursday evening.

Unconfirmed reports than said about 15 people escaped from a rear exit of the plane.

The drama began early on Thursday when the men hijacked the plane carrying 162 passengers and 12 crew members.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin told Russian state television the men had made no demands.

The Vnukovo Airlines plane was parked in an isolated area of the airport in Medina.

The deputy governor of Medina said a crisis team had been sent to the airport to negotiate with the hijackers.

The passengers apparently endured a harrowing flight once the hijackers took control, with the plane suddenly dropping 10,000 feet in altitude at one point, said Turkish Transport Minister Enis Oksuz. He said he believed the injury occurred during the fracas.

Initially, it was believed there were two hijackers. But the FSB, the Russian secret police formerly called the KGB, later said there were at least four hijackers.

The hijacking prompted Putin to interrupt his vacation in Siberia and set up an emergency headquarters to deal personally with the situation.

At one stage, the Russian intelligence service FSB was preparing a team to "liberate the plane," a spokesman for Putin said.

Russia is waging its second military campaign in breakaway Chechnya in four years, fighting mainly Muslim rebels.

Moscow has long accused Turkey of supporting the rebels in the breakaway Russian republic in the Caucasus region.

But Turkey and Russia recently signed an agreement to co-operate in the battle against terrorism after Turkey reportedly promised to stop all support of the Chechens.

The Kremlin was calling for the plane to be returned to Russia and for the hijackers to be turned over to Russian authorities.

passengers
Released passengers  

Medina is one of Islam's holiest cities. Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims who had come for the annual Hajj have been making their way home through Medina's airport.

Turkey is a popular tourist destination for Russians. Many of those who also travel to Turkey are engaged in shuttle trading, the buying of clothing and small appliances to sell in Russian street markets.

It is the fifth hijacking from a Turkish airport since 1998.

The last was in 1999, when a hijacker armed with a knife commandeered a Cairo-bound flight shortly after takeoff from Istanbul. He surrendered to German police after the plane landed in Hamburg, Germany.

In October 1998, soldiers stormed a commandeered plane in the capital, Ankara, and shot and killed the hijacker.



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RELATED SITES:
Turkish Transport Ministry (in Turkish)
Ataturk Istanbul Airport Turkey
The Government of the Russian Federation
Chechen Republic
Tu-154 Vnukovo Airlines

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