M A I N   N E W S

Russian school siege toll 322

Beslan (Russia), September 4
At least 322 persons, including 155 children, were killed during the bloody end to the hostage crisis at a school in southern Russia, a senior prosecutor said today.

“As a result of the terrorist acts, 322 persons were killed, 155 of whom were children,” Deputy Prosecutor-General Sergei Fridinsky told mediapersons. “I think the death toll will rise, but probably not very much,” he added.

A total of 26 militants were killed he said. None of them were captured alive, Fridinsky said. Officials said the number of hostages taken in the school was more than 1,000, up from previous estimate of around 350.

“I can tell you that today, after the investigation we have carried out, including the questioning of hostages, the total number of hostages in the school was more than 1,000 people,” said Lev Dzugayev, a spokesman for the North Ossetian regional authorities.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a security clampdown in the Caucasus today. Rescuers were still pulling bodies from the ruins of the school.

Anxious relatives milled at the town’s cinema, where officials were due to provide details of the dead and the injured.

Ruslan, a young man, was searching for his wife: “I have been searching all day and I cannot find her. Where are our people ? No one tells us anything. No one is protecting us,” he said.

Most of the dead were in the school’s gymnasium. They were killed either by explosions that brought down the roof, mined by the hostage-takers, or by the fire and the battles between soldiers and captors that followed.

Mr Putin paid a lightning visit to the scene of the disaster, visiting victims in hospital. He had ordered Beslan and Ossetia to be sealed of. — Reuters