TWO men, two women and a child were released early today from a Turkish Cypriot passenger - aircraft which had been hijacked to Munich, police said.
The release of the five passengers followed a police announcement that they had succeeded in communicating directly with the hijackers instead of using the pilot as intermediary.
The spokesman said the release appeared for now to be a one off rather than a precursor to the release of more passengers. He said one of the freed women appeared to have been operated on recently.
There were a total of 97 bona fide passengers on board the North Cyprus Turkish Airline Boeing 727, together with eight crew members.
It had flown in from Sofia, where it had refuelled after being diverted by the hijackers on way to Istanbul from Ercan airport in northern Cyprus.
Earlier, a Cypriot source said that the hijackers included two women and might be Azeris.
Officials at Istanbul airport said the flight was hijacked around 7.00 p.m. in Turkish airspace not far from the town of rebels began melting back into their mountain hideouts last night after an all out assault on Grozny, which was meant as a message to the Kremlin that it will not end the war without negotiating with them.
Fierce fighting continued in the city yesterday, but some reports indicated the Chechens were gradually withdrawing after a three day battle in which they seized a third of the capital, suffered many scores of casualties, but secured a sizeable publicity coup.
Russia's Interior Ministry - keen to imply that it has emerged victorious from the fray - said the situation was "under control", as federal troops began "search and destroy" missions to flush out the remaining pockets of Chechen fighters in the ruined city.
As they did so, Mr Anatoly Kulikov, the interior minister who co commanded Russia's disastrous bombardment in Peivomayskoy touched down at Grozny airport where he held talks with the head of the Moscow backed regional government, Mr Doku Zavgayev.
The Chechen assault began at awn on Wednesday, the eve of a meeting of President Boris Yeltsin's Security Council to discuss ways of settling the 15 month conflict which he has vowed to end before the presidential election in June. The timing also suggests it was an attempt to steal the thunder from Mr Yeltsin, who left the meeting claiming to have a framework for a settlement, but without revealing details.
The President, although vague, did indicate that the Russian forces will continue to fight the rebels and their leader, Gen Dzhokhar Dudayev, with whom he has ruled out negotiations. The attack by the Chechens, who demand independence from Russia, appears to have been an effort to show that there can be no enduring settlement which excludes them.
Comment on Chechnya in Moscow was muted yesterday as it was a holiday, but the latest flare up has already been seized upon by Mr Yeltsin's political opponents, who are well aware of the mood of public anger and frustration engendered by the war.
This sentiment is hardly surprising, given the catalogue of disasters suffered by the Russians in the last six months. They have seen huge sums of money earmarked for a small Caucasus republic that most of the country cares little about, while millions of ethnic Russians wait for months for pay or pensions.
AFP adds: The commander in chief of Russian forces in Chechnya, Gen Viacheslav Tikhomirov, said last night Russian forces completely controlled the situation in Grozny even if there still remained "a little cleaning up work in pockets of separatist resistance. But a Chechen commander, Mr Hassan Dachkaev, said the offensive was a clear demonstration of our forces."