More than 200 people died and more than 600 were injured yesterday when Russian troops stormed a besieged school after suspected Chechen rebels exploded bombs and began shooting hostages. Daniel McLaughlin reports.
The tense, two-day standoff in the republic of North Ossetia erupted into bloody chaos, when militants detonated explosives as they fled and battled soldiers and gun-wielding locals intent on avenging the capture and the killing of dozens of children.
Distraught parents followed special forces troops on to the school campus, after huge blasts and heavy machine gun fire erupted inside the building.
Many returned at a run with burnt and bloodied children in their arms, while other shocked pupils dashed semi-naked from the smouldering building.
"It was stiflingly hot in there, and they kept us packed in the middle of the sports hall, with bombs all around us," said one young girl, who was among as many as 1,200 children, parents and teachers taken hostage on Wednesday, the first day of term.
"They wouldn't even let us open the windows. We nearly suffocated," she told Russian television, as dozens of unconscious children were carried past her on stretchers.
More than 200 children were recovering in hospital last night, many with serious injuries.
A young boy said the gunmen - who had threatened to shoot 50 children for every one of their number killed - told the hostages to drink their own urine, after rejecting repeated offers of food and water from negotiators.
Another young pupil said at least one woman had blown herself up in the school, as up to 30 militants fired on approaching soldiers and tried to escape a building that they had booby-trapped in fear of attack by hundreds of troops gathered outside its grounds.
"The number of those killed in the terrorist act in Beslan could be far more than 150," said Mr Aslambek Aslakhanov, an adviser to President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Aslakhanov was reported to be on his way to the school for talks before the siege ended in carnage.
Witnesses said the roof of the sports hall was destroyed by a series of explosions, and its collapse probably killed dozens of the hostages. The bodies of at least 100 people were seen lying in the ruins.
"I want to underline that we did not plan any military actions. We were planning to continue negotiations to secure the release of the hostages," said Mr Valery Andreyev, the head of security services in the North Ossetia region.
"At about 1 p.m. two large explosions occurred, and some of the hostages started running out of the school.
They opened fire on the fleeing children and adults, and to save the lives of the hostages we returned fire on the bandits.
"Civilians with guns also opened fire, preventing the effective operation of the special forces. They did everything possible to save the lives of the hostages, and thanks to them many were indeed saved," Mr Andreyev said.
Officials said the explosions were probably caused by homemade bombs accidentally falling from the ceiling of the sports hall.
Initial reports suggested the security forces had blown a hole in the wall of the school to allow hostages to escape, using as cover a bus that approached the building to collect the bodies of some of the 16 people killed when the siege began.
The gunmen had demanded an end to war in Chechnya and the withdrawal of Russian troops, and the release from jail of several comrades in neighbouring Ingushetia, where they killed dozens of soldiers and policemen in an audacious raid in June.
President Putin had vowed to use force only as a last resort, against rebels he says are funded by al-Qaeda.
Officials claimed that nine or 10 of the militants killed were Arabs and were led by a close ally of the warlord Shamil Basayev, Russia's most wanted man.
Security forces said three militants had been captured alive, and that a further four were still on the run last night.
Several of them were thought to have escaped the school wearing civilian clothes and tried to slip away as chaos engulfed it.
Russian television showed a gang of men surrounding one suspected guerrilla and beating him to the ground, where he appeared to lie unconscious as soldiers fired into the air above him to disperse the furious mob.
World leaders expressed their horror at the siege and its conclusion, which sent shock waves through Russia after a week in which Chechen rebels were also blamed for blowing up two airliners and dispatching a female suicide bomber to Moscow. At least 100 people died in those attacks.
"This is yet another grim reminder of the lengths to which terrorists will go to threaten the civilised world," said US President George Bush.