Russian forces shelled the deserted town of Gori yesterday, just hours before President Medvedev ordered a halt to military operations against Georgia.

In what was the first confirmation that Russian soldiers had moved to the outskirts of the town from South Ossetia, as many as four fragmentation shells landed around the main square in Gori, where a statue of Stalin still stands.

A witness told The Times that at least four residents had been killed in blasts around Stalin Avenue. Zhura Akopashvili said that the shells had fallen in rapid succession, scattering metal fragments into cars and buildings. A Dutch cameraman was also killed and his colleague wounded when a shell hit Gori’s media centre.

The blasts from the shells had blown out the windows of Gori’s administrative building behind Stalin’s giant statue, which was undamaged. The former Soviet dictator continued to stare in the direction of the invading Russian Army, which had once answered to him in fighting Nazi Germany. Broken glass carpeted the street after the explosions damaged buildings around the square. The only food store that had been operating in the city throughout the conflict was also severely damaged.

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“There was a noise and then suddenly explosions. We didn’t hear any aircraft – they just came from nowhere. The poor journalists never stood a chance,” Mr Akopashvili said, pointing to the spot near the foodstore where the TV crew had been hit.

There remained a fragment of what appeared to be a Grad missile that had struck an apartment building just behind the main square. Zhuzhuna Merabishvili stood in shock next to the casing as she watched her home being consumed by a fire that raged through the building.

“I was inside with my son when it hit.

There was a huge noise and we were thrown to the floor,” she said sobbing, her left arm shaking uncontrollably. “We were the only ones left in the building, everyone else had gone. I have only one home so where should I go? Now I don’t even have that.”

Colonel-General Anatoli Nogovitsyn, deputy head of the General Staff in Moscow, denied that Russian forces had attacked the town, which was abandoned in a panic by Georgian troops and tanks on Monday night.

The streets of Gori, usually a thriving town of 50,000 people, were eerily quiet. Shops were locked up and apartment buildings deserted because virtually the whole population had left. The few remaining residents said that Russian jets had bombed the hillsides overlooking the town earlier in the day. Plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the hills. Two Georgian military vehicles had crashed into each other on the road towards Tbilisi, more evidence of the hurried retreat from Gori. But there was no sign of Russian soldiers entering the town itself.

However, after President Medvedev’s announcement of a halt to operationsThe Timessaw three attack helicopters rising suddenly from behind a hillside deep into Georgia, about halfway along the road from Gori to Tbilisi. They swooped low before unleashing what appeared to be three sets of incendiary flares in the direction of Georgian farmland.

It remains to be seen how quickly the people of Gori will feel safe enough to return home now that Russia has declared an end to its military campaign. There was no indication yesterday of when Russian forces would withdraw.

In Tbilisi long queues had formed at petrol stations during the morning as anxious residents filled their cars in expectation of having to flee a Russian advance. Mr Saakashvili had appeared on national television the previous evening to urge people not to panic, saying that they would have at least 12 hours’ notice of any threat to the city.

The mood in the capital was subdued, despite the ceasefire announcement. Many shops were shut, as were the banks, which the Government had ordered to close for three days to prevent a run on the Georgian currency.

At a demonstration filling the centre of Tbilisi, protesters held up posters showing Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, in a Nazi uniform. Behind the stage, where Mr Saakashvili addressed cheering supporters, a placard showed Mr Putin in Red Army costume next to a list of countries invaded by Soviet troops, from Poland in 1919 to Afghanistan in 1979. Georgia’s name was last, next to the portrait of Mr Putin pointing out to the crowd. The slogan read: “You are next.”

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