British family 'in good condition' after being reunited following their ordeal

Members of the British family seized by Chechen rebels during the Moscow theatre hostage crisis were reunited yesterday after four days of anguish.

Their ordeal came to an end when Richard Low, 20, an Oxford University undergraduate, was released from hospital to meet his parents, Peter and Sidica.

The family was being looked after last night by British embassy officials who were making arrangements for all three to fly back to Britain today.

Despite the trauma of being separated since the theatre was seized on Wednesday night, the family was "in good condition", according to embassy doctors.

The British ambassador, Sir Roderic Lyne, who visited Richard in hospital, said after his release: "He is in good shape and not suffering any after-effects at all. I went to the hospital where Richard Low was and the atmosphere there was completely calm. When I saw Richard he was among a group of Russian hostages chatting and having a cup of tea."

Sir Roderic added that all of the family had been examined by the embassy doctor and were not found to have been suffering any obvious ill-effects.

As scores of less fortunate hostages continued to languish in Moscow hospitals suffering the effects of poison gas released during the raid by Russian special forces, the Low family celebrated the end of their ordeal.

The sense of relief was particularly strong for Peter Low, 59, a former advertising executive who was the first hostage to be freed because of ill health on Thursday. In the following hours he waited outside the theatre for his wife and son to be released.

When the siege ended after 58 hours he was reunited with his wife, Romanian-born Sidica, a physics technician. But amid the confusion the couple, from Southgate, north London, struggled to get information about their son, whom they were visiting in Moscow where he was improving his Russian as part of a degree course.

Richard was taken with hundreds of other hostages to City Clinical Hospital No 13 to be treated for suspected respiratory problems and was released last night.

It was unclear where in the besieged theatre Richard and his mother were sitting when the raid by Russia's Alpha force beganbut they are not thought to have been badly affected by the gas.

The drama was watched live on television at the family home in London by Richard's sister, Louise, 24. A family friend said she had not left the house for four days as she waited for news of the safe release of her parents and brother, which finally came in a phone call on Saturday morning.