Iran-Bound Gunmen Kidnap Russian Youths and Teacher : Hostages: The masked men take captives in a southern city. After one stop, their helicopter heads in the direction of the Islamic republic.

Four masked gun men took a group of students and a teacher hostage in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Thursday, then flew to another southern city in an explosives-laden helicopter before taking off again, reports said today.

The hijacked helicopter carrying nine Russian youths, their teacher and the four gunmen left the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, Radio Russia reported today.

The radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp. in London, said the aircraft was flying a course toward Mineralnyye Vody, about 200 miles southeast of Krasnodar, on the way to Iran. The gunmen had flown to Krasnodar from Rostov-on-Don, 150 miles to the northeast, where they seized their captives Thursday.

Russia’s State Committee for Emergency Situations said the kidnapers told officials with whom they negotiated in Rostov-on-Don that they wanted to fly to Iran--about 675 miles to the southeast--with stops across the Caucasus.

The gunmen’s identities were not known, although at least three of them were thought by their accents to be from the Caucasus.

It was unclear if they had any political motives.

The Russian Itar-Tass news agency quoted two students who were freed in Rostov-on-Don as saying the gunmen had said they wanted to go to Iran to get treatment for syphilis but planned to release their hostages before crossing into that country.

The hostage-taking began in Rostov-on-Don when the four gunmen took a dozen 15-year-old students and their teacher hostage at a school, forced them into a bus and demanded that they be driven to a military base outside the city, state emergency officials said.

After the gunmen demanded an aircraft to fly to Iran, authorities gave them a helicopter.

Before taking off, the gunmen took the bus driver hostage and released two students and a soldier who had been seized during negotiations, the agency reported. Another student had been freed earlier, Itar-Tass reported.

The gunmen loaded the helicopter with boxes of explosives, which they threatened to blow up at any moment, Itar-Tass said.