Wails of mourning echoed through the streets of Beslan today, and the region’s top police officer reportedly resigned in the wake of the school hostage taking that left more than 350 people dead.

Suicide attackers seized a packed school in Russia’s troubled Caucuses region today and threatened to kill 50 children for every gunman “destroyed".

A suicide attacker rammed a truck packed with explosives through the gates of a Russian military hospital near Chechnya, destroying the building and killing at least 27 people, authorities said. One official put the death toll at 35.

A SUICIDE bomber destroyed a Russian military hospital near Chechnya yesterday, killing at least 20 people.