Three people were killed as Saudi troops stormed a hijacked Russian airliner and freed more than 100 passengers today.
"The operation ended and the hostages are freed," an official at the Medina airport said.
But there were diverging reports of just who had died in the raid on the plane, seized after it took off from Istanbul yesterday by hijackers who issued demands that Russia end its tough military campaign in the rebel Muslim region of Chechnya.
The Saudi Interior Ministry said one hijacker and two hostages were killed when Saudi security forces stormed the plane.
Abdul Aziz Mahmoud Masalhi, a senior member of the medical team at Medina airport, said: "Three hijackers, including one woman, were killed. One hijacker was arrested and several passengers injured."
In Moscow, a senior Russian official said the dead were a passenger, a crew member and a hijacker.
"According to our information, three people died during the operation - one of the terrorists, the youngest one, a female flight attendant and one Turkish passenger", the Russian said.
Witnesses saw a handcuffed man in his 20s being driven out of the airport in an ambulance. The freed hostages were taken away on four buses.
The hijackers are thought to include former Chechen minister for state security Mr Aslanbek Arsayev, it was reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed of the operation by Saudi security forces to free passengers, Interfax news agency said.
It quoted senior Kremlin aide Mr Sergei Yastrzhembsky as saying that the operation to storm the plane with nearly 130 people on board had been undertaken with Moscow's consent. The Tu154 aircraft was hijacked soon after takeoff from Istanbul yesterday.
The Kremlin later said Mr Putin, who was on holiday in southern Siberia, had flown to Moscow today. It was not immediately clear whether his return was connected with the hijack.