Grozny flees before the gathering storm

For the confused and frightened people of Grozny, the Russian assault promised for today seemed to begin 24 hours early.

Refugees fled under gun and aircraft fire yesterday morning, trailing out of the mud track leading south-west from the city, the thud of heavy artillery pounding behind them. "Planes bombed this morning at 7am. They hit a two-storey building near us," said Amanat Besultanova, sitting by the road in the village of Alkhan-Yurt on the south-west edge of the city. "When that happened, we left at once."

She, like many other refugees hurrying to leave the city before the Russian deadline expired last night, was trapped over- night when troops opened fire, killing at least two people and wounding half a dozen more.

Mrs Besultanova was waiting for her husband who was following on foot, anxious that the stream of refugees had suddenly slowed to a trickle.

Further along the road where gunfire could be heard, Zura Labazanova, 43, was walking out, in a cotton dress and plastic shoes, carrying a bottle of water in a plastic bag and little else. "We were coming out just now when they shot at us from the woods," she said. "One man was wounded in the hand - everyone was running. Men or women, they do not care who they shoot."

Two casualties from Tuesday, a man and a woman, lay in the village mosque, their belongings, shot through and stained with blood, piled in a corner.

Both were shot dead when soldiers blocked the road with two armoured vehicles and fired into the woods at the fleeing refugees.

There, Musa Alikhadzhiyev said he had come to find his cousin, one of the dead who had been escorting his family from the city when the soldiers opened fire. Mr Alikhadzhiyev had already found the body of his 12-year- old niece, and traced five others of the family who were wounded and now in the hospital, he said. "They are not fighting," he said of the Russian troops. "They are preying on simple people."

As he spoke, a Grad multiple rocket launcher roared in the distance, releasing some 30 rockets on the city centre in as many seconds.

Tens of thousands of people remained trapped in the city, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. "There are many Russians with children who are staying. I said to them to come but they were too scared," said another refugee, Dubi Labazanov, who drove out with his wife. "You risk your life by staying and you risk your life by leaving."

Russian troops meanwhile were moving into position closer around the edge of the city. Tanks and armoured vehicles were ranged in the fields and hills south of the city. Soldiers manned newly-dug bunkers in the woods to the south, guarding the escape route used by Chechen fighters in the past. They appeared tense. one shouting hoarsely for a lone car to stop, his eyes wide with alarm.

Earlier, a colonel flagged down a civilian car for help for a wounded Russian woman, demanding the civilians escort the armoured vehicle to a hospital. The soldiers treating the woman, holding a plasma drip, were clearly fearful of driving alone into the nearest Chechen village.

A small column of armoured vehicles moving towards Russian positions on the south of the city stopped to buy cigarettes and soft drinks by the road. "We will storm the city," one said, his eyes bright against the grime of his face. Another said: "We will take it and loot everything."

Last night, meanwhile, in the village of Novy Atagi, south of Grozny, the Chechen chief of staff, Aslan Maskhadov, prepared to receive General Alexander Lebed, the Russian security chief, in a last-ditch attempt to avert a full-scale Russian assault on Grozny. Russian soldiers at a nearby checkpoint said they were expecting him but appeared far more relaxed than their counterparts near Grozny.