"Contacts have been broken with the hijackers who for three hours have not answered Saudi negotiators who are demanding the release of more passengers," the official told reporters from the airport.

About 15 people escaped the hijacked plane from a rear exit, shortly after the hijackers freed a group of children, women and elderly men, the total number of whom has reached 45, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

The Russian chartered plane was hijacked by two Chechens 30 minutes after take-off at 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) from Istanbul's Ataturk Airport. It landed Thursday afternoon in Saudi holy city of Medina.

After landing in Medina, the Airlines with 162 passengers on board was surrounded by security forces and parked far away from the main traffic runway at the airport for the security of Muslim pilgrims who were preparing to return home after the annual hajj, which ended last week.

The hijackers who identified themselves as Chechen rebels claimed to have a bomb and were reportedly armed with knives.

The leader of the hijackers is a former Chechen interior minister, a Chechen envoy said in Jordan.

"Artsayev Aslambik, a former general and Chechen interior minister, is the leader of the hijackers," Atfayva Fariza, a representative of the former Chechen republic and wife of another former Chechen minister, told reporters.

"The aim of this operation is to bring to the world's attention what is going on in Chechnya and to call for international intervention in the crisis," she said. "This is not a terrorist attack."

Fariza said Artsayev, interior minister in 1998, had been wounded in Russia's war against Chechen rebels and had been receiving treatment in Turkey.

Fariza said the hijackers chose Medina because it was off-limits to non-Muslims.

At least one passenger was wounded during a fight with the hijackers, Turkish television reported.

Turkey has been accused by Russia of giving support to the rebels in the breakaway Chechnya republic. But recently, the two countries agreed to cooperate to fight against terrorism.

Thursday's hijacking is the fifth from a Turkish airport since 1998. The last was in 1999.

Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday evening ordered the special operation headquarters dealing with a Russian TU-154 airliner-hijacking incident to make every effort to keep all hostages safe and get back the plane.

The president stressed that to save the hostages' lives and return the plane to Russia is a priority task for the headquarters formed after the hijack, Putin's spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said.

Putin gave the instruction during a conversation with First Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Vladimir Pronichev, who heads the headquarters, Yastrzhembsky added.

The headquarters have established contacts with foreign secret services, he said, and are closely following the developments and making joint efforts with the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the State Civil Aviation Service and the General Prosecutor's Office to release the hostages.

(Xinhua 03/16/2001)