A Russian rocket yesterday struck a convoy of Chechen refugees heading for shelter in neighbouring Ingushetia, wounding at least 30 people and killing many, witnesses and Chechen officials said.
A spokesman for the Chechen President, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, said in Grozny that some 50 refugees had been killed and dozens more injured when the Russians struck the convoy at around 2.30 p.m. (10.30 GMT).
The column was hit near the village of Shami-Yurt, 22 km west of the Chechen capital, Grozny, as it headed for Ingushetia, witnesses said.
Mr Mikhail Margelov, a spokesman for the Russian Information Centre, acknowledged that the Russian army had opened fire on two trucks west of Grozny, the Interfax news agency reported.
But he denied western media reports that a refugee convoy had been hit, saying that the trucks were equipped with machine guns and were heading towards the Chechen capital.
"They could not have contained refugees, as the refugees are fleeing away from dangerous areas," he said.
"There were many dead, many wounded," one woman, still in a state of shock, said after Russian troops had allowed her and a small group of mostly wounded refugees to enter Ingushetia.
But otherwise the border remained shut, and Russian generals said refugees might be allowed to cross next Monday at the earliest.
Russia last Saturday sealed the border between the Chechen republic and Ingushetia, but had promised to open several corridors yesterday to allow refugees to escape the fighting in Chechnya.
Russia has stepped up its offensive against the rebel republic, bombarding the capital and "terrorist" bases throughout Chechnya from the air and on the ground with tanks and artillery.
Military sources said Russian rockets were raining down on the south-western corner of Chechnya - where the convoy was hit - around Shami-Yurt, Samachki, Achkoi Martin and Noviy Sharoi. A witness, Mr Magomed Khasayev, said the convoy was struck by two Russian warplanes circling above.
Other Chechen witnesses said at least 30 people were wounded and "many others" were killed in the attack. They spoke from a hospital in Sleptsovsk, Ingushetia, from which at least nine Russian ambulances were dispatched to the scene of the attack.
The hospital in Sleptsovsk was also receiving civilians wounded in Russian air bombardments of the western Chechen villages of Samashki and Urus Martan, medical personnel said.
Moscow denies it has killed any civilians in its offensive, instead saying it has made "precision" strikes against groups of suspected Chechen "terrorists" since it launched air raids on September 5th. President Clinton on Thursday urged Moscow to "stop fighting and start talking" - a message which the US Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, repeated at talks in Moscow yesterday with the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov.
The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, also called on "both sides in this conflict to show restraint and to take special care to avoid civilian casualties".
The UN is expected soon to dispatch a mission to the areas bordering Chechnya to assess the needs of more than 190,000 refugees who have fled the fighting.
Moscow, which rejects any comparison with the 1994-1996 war which killed 80,000 people and left Chechnya with de facto independence, insisted yesterday that it would press ahead with the offensive.