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Bus with Fleeing Chechens

One bus was completely destroyed close to Shaami Yurt, after suffering three direct hits. Many of its passengers died.²⁵

The destroyed bus was carrying a large white flag at the time of the attack.²⁶ Several eyewitnesses said that rockets destroyed the bus and crushed several cars in front and behind it. Chechen journalist Umar Magomadov said that when he drove around the bus he saw five or six severely damaged cars. He believed that some people in cars close to the bus had also died of the blast.²⁷

Magomadov witnessed how the bus, which was about forty or fifty meters ahead of his vehicle, was hit:

There was a bus ahead of us (I saw it from afar), I sat in the front of the van next to the driver. I wasn’t paying attention to the bus when it suddenly started burning. We heard an explosion and the bus burned.... We immediately stopped our vehicle.²⁸

Magomadov decided to walk up to the bus. As he was walking, the airplanes turned around and shot two more rockets at the bus. According to Magomadov, the bus was thirty-two seater (PAZ model) and had been full. He said he saw how the dead bodies of dozens of men, women and children were carried out of the bus.²⁹

Several other witnesses estimated that some people on the bus were killed and that many on the bus were injured. Malika Musaieva said:

When we took shelter in the ditch, the planes circled and attacked again. I heard two explosions and it was then that the Gazel [a small truck] and the bus were hit about fifty meters away from us.... The bus was further back and I saw people run out of the bus who were injured but I do not know how many were killed.³⁰

An eyewitness who helped remove dead bodies from the bus said:

There were still living as well as dead people [in the bus]. We pulled out the dead and threw [them on a heap].... We took the wounded to the villages, and the dead we quickly threw into cars.... We couldn’t take three remaining bodies because there were no more cars anymore.³¹

Many of the bodies had been ripped to pieces. Several eyewitnesses said they saw severed arms, legs, fingers, and heads in and around the bus.

Two Chechen cameramen died in the immediate vicinity of the bus. They had tried to film the battered vehicle when planes attacked for the second time. One of the journalists, twenty-nine-year-old Shamil Gekaev, was killed instantly. The other, Ramzan Mezhidov, thirty-three and father of two, died in a hospital of his wounds several hours later.³²

Umar Magomadov said that when the first rocket hit the bus, he and his fellow passengers immediately got out of his van. While most sought cover in a nearby ditch, Magomadov resolved to walk up to the car of his colleagues (which he earlier noticed not far ahead) and film the bus.

I knew these guys would go and film it..., especially Ramzan, he was a courageous man. I couldn’t see the bus, only a lot of smoke.... It was very quiet. In fact, there was a deadly silence. When I ran toward them, they jumped out [of their car] with a camera.³³

Alimkhad Israilov was in the car with the two journalists. He said as the other passengers in the car lay down on the ground, Mezhidov walked away, saying “I just want to film it.”³⁴ Magodmadov continued:

One plane started to turn around but they only saw the bus.... I screamed that they should turn around.... He [one of the journalists] turned around and smiled: “It’ll be alright.” He ran on, the plane shot two rockets at the bus.... Once again, a cloud of smoke and dust blew into the air. As we stood there, I was thinking: “When the smoke dissipates they will come out....” But nobody came.

When I ran up to the scene, I saw that Shamil had been killed instantly. I started to shake.... Ramzan’s arm and leg had been ripped off. We took him to a hospital where he died.³⁵

Alimkhad Israilov, who at the time of the incident was trying to hold on to his scared cat, Professor, gave the following description.

I saw a flash and I realized that they had shot the highway again.... When it calmed, it became dark, and I felt an ache in my ears.... My cat got out, and I ran after him, yelling “Professor, Professor.” Only after that I saw others laying on the ground.... Some woman tried to hide her baby with her body. When I saw her, I realized I shouldn’t run after my cat but look for my friends. But the planes came again and Zeinap and the other passengers said “calm down, wait until they pass.” Then I came to the road and saw everything covered in black soot. It was a terrible scene, a mess, a pile of something I didn’t understand. They were not burned but between their bodies was a big funnel. I saw the two dead bodies of my friends. Ramzan’s leg had been blown off, and his hand together with his video camera. Shamil was whole but had wounds all over his body, holes.³⁶