COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- World chess champion Gari Kasparov escaped the ethnic rioting in Azerbaijan's capital of Baku and fled to Moscow with 60 of his relatives in an aircraft sent by one of his friends, a Danish newspaper reported Friday.
Denmark's largest circulation daily newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, quoted Kasparov as saying in a telephone interview that his escape from Baku had almost failed when Armenians seeking to flee the Azerbaijani capital had stormed the plane.
'I knew something could happen so I went home on January 5. My family in Baku had told me there was a dangerous feeling about the town,' Kasparov told Esktra Bladet.
'Last Friday all hell broke loose. For two days Baku was the worst place to be on Earth. I can hardly explain what happened,' he said.
'People were killed. Some hid behind heavy old doors but terrorist gangs battered the doors for hours so they gave way. Younger people tried to escape and hide from the gangs but they were found,' Kasparov said.
'The experience was shocking, in particular the way that government soldiers watched passively as Armenians were dragged out onto the streets. The government should have reacted much much sooner,' Kasparov told Ekstra Bladet.
'Myself and my relatives arrived in Moscow on Wednesday and I hope I never witness such scenes again,' Kasparov, an Armenian jew, told the Danish newspaper.
