Medina, Saudi Arabia — Saudi commandos rushed up ladders and broke through the windows and doors of a Russian plane Friday, freeing more than 100 hostages and ending a hijacking by Chechen rebels. Three people a flight attendant, a hijacker and a passenger were killed.
The commandos pushed two other hijackers face down onto the tarmac and handcuffed them as the hostages streamed past them to safety after 22 hours in captivity.
In this image from television, Saudi security forces storm the hijacked Russian airliner Friday at Medina Airport. More than 100 hostages were freed, ending the drama that began Thursday when Chechen rebels armed with knives commandeered the aircraft after takeoff from Istanbul, Turkey.
Witnesses said there were three hijackers in all and that they brandished knives and claimed to have a bomb.
Necati Ates, a Turkish passenger, told Turkey's NTV television he watched the Saudi forces put a ladder against the plane, adding: "I saw them through the window and they signaled to me to keep quiet."
Several people were injured in the rescue, which came after the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane, the Saudi Interior Ministry said.
The Chechens seized the Moscow-bound aircraft on Thursday after it took off from Istanbul, Turkey, and diverted it to the holy Saudi city of Medina.
Paramedics said the hijackers stabbed and shot to death the female flight attendant during the commando raid and that the hijacker and passenger both men were killed by gunfire.
Footage of Friday's rescue operation showed more than a dozen commandos surrounding the plane as others ran up the ladders, breaking through the windows and doors. Passengers ran down the staircase as gun-wielding commandos in bulletproof vests shouted for them to hurry.
Hours before the raid, as many as 46 people were freed or escaped from the Vnukova Airlines plane. When it left Turkey, the flight carried 162 passengers and 12 crew members.
"They said they had a bomb, but no one saw it. No one knew what they wanted," hostage Monika Turkan told Russia's ORT government television.
Other freed hostages recalled suffocation, thirst and fear as conditions on the plane grew increasingly oppressive.
"There wasn't enough oxygen, there wasn't enough water, women and children were crying," co-pilot Sergei Vorobyov said by phone in an interview with Russia's ORT government television.
The Saudis said they decided to storm the plane, in consultation with the Russian government, after reaching "a dead end" in negotiations.
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