"[9] According to the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Andrei Babitsky, the worst hit area was the so-called kolkhoz sector of the market, located near the building of the Chechen military headquarters.

[7] Reuters reporter Maria Eismont counted at least 90 bodies on the scene,[10] while the local AFP correspondent said he witnessed 17 corpses recovered from the market.

[6] Some time afterwards, another missile fell about 200 meters from the bazaar, claiming the life of Supian Ependiyev, the first journalist to be killed while covering the Second Chechen War.

The attack was met with an official denial on the part of the Russian authorities, who insisted that no civilians died in the blasts and provided a number of widely varying and conflicting alternative explanations.

Another official, the chief of the Center of Public Relations of the FSB, Aleksandr Zdanovitch, alleged a self-explosion of the ammunition stored there "because the terrorists thought there would be no air or artillery strikes at the place of large concentrations of people".

In addition, those who were not protected by overhead cover received multiple fragmentation wounds, and the foreground showed the characteristic traces of cassette (cluster) ammunition of so-called "ball bombs" (munitions used in the Tochka missile warheads and intended for destruction of non-protected live forces in large areas).

[7] "The mosque and the maternity home, about which the Russian officials have chosen to keep silent, are undoubtedly civil objects, the attack of which is explicitly prohibited," Memorial added.

[7] According to Human Rights Watch, the possibility of arms merchants or military installations in the bazaar did not justify "the tremendous amount of force" used against the market in a strike which may have been illegal.

Human Rights Watch calls upon Chechen commanders to immediately redeploy their troops, headquarters, and weapons storage facilities out of populated areas.

Thus you can buy fresh bread, a TV set, a wedding dress, a bag of nails, and an AK-47 in one open area the size of a couple of sports fields.

"[18] United States : The White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said that there were "conflicting reports and statements" about the blasts, but "what's clear is that there's a tragic situation there with terrible loss of life.

"[12][18] U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called the incident "deplorable and ominous" and said that the Russians should have learnt in their previous war in Chechnya that "this kind of violence is not a solution".

[13] Amnesty International declared that "even assuming that these weapons [being sold at several stalls in one corner of the market] were indeed the target of the attack, the use by Russian forces of high explosive weapons in a market place crowded with civilians suggests that this attack may have been indiscriminate within the meaning of Article 51 of Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions, to which the Russian Federation is a party, and therefore a grave breach of this Protocol."

In addition to selecting and vetting targets for their genuine military significance, it should give civilians effective advance warning of its attacks - "unless circumstances do not permit" - in compliance with international humanitarian law.

[21] The Committee to Protect Journalists protested the death of Supian Ependiyev in an open letter to President Yeltsin,[11] while Human Rights Watch said the assault "may have been a serious violation of the laws of war" and urged the Russian authorities to vigorously investigate the incident and publish their findings.