Children, weeping parents and sombre-faced officials marked the second anniversary of one of Russia’s worst terrorist attacks today, attending tearful ceremonies at the burnt-out shell of Beslan’s School No. 1.

Militants who carried out last September’s bloody school hostage-taking in Beslan had also planned to detonate powerful car bombs in other cities in southern Russia, a suspect in the raid told a court today.

Nur-Pashi Kulayev, the sole defendant in the trial over the Beslan school raid in southern Russia that killed more than 330 people, pleaded not guilty to all charges when he appeared in court in Vladikavkaz today.

Residents of the grief-stricken Russian school siege town marked the end of the formal 40 day mourning period for the hundreds of victims of the massacre today.