By Dmitry Solovyov

MOSCOW, Dec 2 (Reuters) - An investigation has been launched into thefts from victims taken hostage in a Moscow theatre in 2002 and freed in a commando raid, Russian prosecutors said on Tuesday.

More than 100 of some 700 people watching the Musical Nord Ost were killed after Chechen rebels took them hostage for three days.

Russian commandos pumped gas into the building to neutralise the rebels and then stormed the theatre. Many of the hostages died from the effects of the gas, while others suffocated.

Valuables have in several instances been stolen from victims of crime or disasters in Russia. However, none of these thefts has ever been prosecuted.

The hostage-taking ended on Oct. 26, 2002. For more than a month thereafter, police cordoned off the theatre for investigation.

"It has been established that this money was stolen in the period between Oct. 29 and Dec. 5, 2002 from the theatre in Dubrovka in the city of Moscow," the investigative committee at Russia's prosecutor-general's office said in a statement.

Officials could not be immediately reached for more detail and the statement did not say who was suspected in the theft.

Igor Trunov, a lawyer who represents the Nord-Ost hostages, said he knew of about 200 cases of valuables being stolen, though only 15 cases were strong enough for investigation.

"Practically all of those unconscious were stripped of their valuables. The valuable items left in the theatre were also stolen," he told Reuters. In one instance a handbag containing several thousand dollars in cash went missing, he said.

Many of the theatre-goers were visiting Moscow and had preferred to carry valuables with them rather than leave them in hotels.

Trunov said looting also took place after bomb attacks on Moscow's underground and after the roof at a popular Moscow swimming pool collapsed in 2004, killing 28.

Russian media reported that valuables were stolen from the victims of an Aeroflot plane crash in September, in an area police had cordoned off near Perm in the Ural mountains. (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Catherine Bosley)

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