Bloody end to Russian school siege
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-03 21:07

Russian troops Friday attempted to end the terrifying hostage-taking of a school in southern Russia, but fighting persisted on the school grounds as captives raced from the building under siege.

Hostage-takers and their captives fled in a scene of chaos amid explosions and gunfire as commandos stormed the building on Friday.

At least seven people were killed and at least 310 injured, ITAR-Tass cites regional health ministry officials as saying.

A boy runs for cover after he was released from the school seized by heavily armed masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya , September 3, 2004. [Reuters]

Russian special forces troops took action Friday after the hostage-takers opened fire as the troops attempted to remove the bodies of those killed when the siege began two days ago.

Fighting continued on the school grounds. An Interior Ministry official said that troops have seized a gym where hostages were held, but believe there may be militants in other buildings holding hostages.

Russian commandos are in hot pursuit of the hostage-takers. There was also a report of two women terrorists dressed in white, trying to flee and blend into the population.

Another media report said 13 militants had managed to escape.

Russian Interior Ministry officer carries an injured girl after she was released from the school seized by heavily armed masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya, September 3, 2004. [Reuters]

ITAR-Tass said soldiers blew a hole in the building to help hostages escape.

Some hostage-takers were still holed up in the building but special forces were not able to go in after them because the area was mined, the news agency said.

One report said five of the hostage-takers were killed in the standoff at the school in North Ossetia, near Chechnya, where rebels have been fighting Russia and demanding independence for that small republic.

There were reports of gunfire in the building and structures ablaze near the school. Huge explosions could be heard and plumes of smoke seen near the school. Small arms fire crackled.

A boy is carried by his father after he was released from the school seized by heavily armed masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya, September 3, 2004. Russian soldiers battled Chechen separatists on Friday to end a two-day-old school siege as naked children ran out screaming amid explosions and machinegun fire. [Reuters]

There was another report that troops surrounded a residence where several militants were thought to have taken refuge.

The explosions could have resulted from mines and booby-traps planted near the school by militants, experts say.

Interfax quoted a defense official saying that "the terrorists planted a lot of mines and booby-traps filled with metal bolts in the gym" where hostages were held.

Casualty figures trickled over the news wires, but could not be confirmed. However, there were images of dead, as well as wounded people, and scores of survivors running from the school.

A boy cries as he sits in a car with his relatives after he was released from the school seized by heavily armed masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya, September 3, 2004. [Reuters]

Another said 10 dead were taken from the school. One local official said "most" of the hostages had survived.

The breakthrough in the hostage-taking came after dozens of captives escaped Friday amid sporadic explosions and small-arms fire that lasted for more than an hour. Russian helicopters circled overhead but were never seen to open fire.

Scenes of the chaotic, chilling ending of the hostage-taking unfolded on television.

Half-naked children dashed out of the school in every direction. Some were carried and helped by parents and adults. Many were bleeding. Others screamed. Many received medical treatment and food and water outside.

Paramedics pulled children out in stretchers and put into cars and ambulances. Some were bandaged and badly injured and others were just simply distraught and relieved to be free. Anxious adults milled around an area near the school where Russian soldiers were stationed.

The standoff, which began with the armed attackers raiding the school on the first day of classes Wednesday, has lasted for well over 40 hours. Sporadic small arms fire and explosions have occurred since Thursday, continuing into Friday afternoon.

Russia's Interfax news agency reported portions of the building's roof had collapsed, and another reporter said he saw two soldiers in black fatigues standing on the roof, ostensibly the part still intact.

The hostage-takers had been holding more than 350 children, parents and teachers, although relatives said the number was much higher -- at about 1,000.

During the ordeal, the terrorists did not allow water and food into the building.

One unidentified woman freed on Thursday told Izvestia newspaper that during the night children occasionally began to cry.

"Then the fighters would fire in the air to restore quiet. In the morning they told us they would not give us anything more to drink because the authorities were not ready to negotiate.

"When children went to the toilet, some tried to drink from the tap. The fighters stopped them straight away."

The current hostage standoff follows a bloody week in Russia, in which a female suicide bomber Tuesday killed nine people outside a Moscow subway station and two airliners were downed by two suspected Chechen female suicide bombers on August 24, killing all 89 people aboard the planes.

Russian officials have said the new wave of attacks is an attempt at revenge for last weekend's elections in Chechnya in which a Kremlin-backed candidate won the presidency.

The crisis is reminiscent of the October 2002 siege of a Moscow theater, when Chechen rebels threatened to kill some 700 hostages and demanded an end to the war in Chechnya.

Many of those attackers were women, with explosives belts strapped to their body, while the men were armed with pistols and rifles. Two massive bombs also had been placed in the theater.

That standoff ended when Russian forces piped poison gas into the theater to knock out everyone inside, but more than 120 hostages and 41 attackers were killed, most of them from the gas.

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