‘Conscript soldiers fled from school siege’

RUSSIAN soldiers fled as shooting broke out in the violence that ended the school siege and unprepared special forces were forced to borrow bullets from armed local people, it was claimed yesterday.

As Beslan buried more victims a week after the siege ended, questions lingered over authorities' handling of the three-day stand-off that left at least 330 hostages dead.

"One of the most painful questions that that whole world is asking why all the events surrounding the Beslan school Number One looked so out of control... probably has an answer: Because nobody was in charge of the operation," the Russian daily Russkiy Kuryer said in an editorial today.

People from around the Caucasus region of North Ossetia continued to come to Beslan and added to a growing mass of flowers and wreaths at the school.

Mourners have also left piles of food and bottles of water which the captors denied the hundreds of children, parents and teachers who were there on September 1 to mark the first day of a new school year when gunmen seized the building.

"From the start, authorities were not doing things right," said Artur Belikov, 35, attending a wake at the graves of his relatives Albina Budayeva, 38, and her three-year-old daughter, Valeria.

He said armed locals charged ahead of special forces troops to prevent them from moving in.

Another Beslan resident who called himself Robert said he arrived soon after the siege started and stood guard throughout the entire stand-off. He said rescue workers were retrieving bodies that lay outside the school when an explosion inside sent children fleeing.

Terrorists began shooting them in the back prompting the forces gathered outside to open fire.

He said conscript soldiers fled as the fighting began. "They were worried about their own lives," said Robert, 31, who had several relatives inside.

Locals handed their clips of ammunition to elite troops who didn't have enough bullets, Robert said. "They weren't ready," he said of the special forces.

The arrival of some of the elite troops also was delayed because they didn't have bullet-proof vests, residents said.

The siege left 11 soldiers from Russia's elite special forces units dead, according to official statements their largest number killed in a single battle. Some reports have said they were shot in the back by overanxious locals at the scene.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin Russia launch an inquiry to unravel the sequence of events which brought a violent end to the school siege and has pledged full co-operation with the parliamentary probe.

"We are interested in obtaining a full and objective picture of the tragic events linked with the hostage-taking in Beslan," Mr Putin said at a televised meeting with the speaker of the country's upper house of parliament.

Earlier this week, Mr Putin ruled out a public inquiry and said a parliamentary investigation could risk becoming a "political show".

Yesterday he promised the commission would have access to all the essential documents they needed.

Members of Russia's upper house will investigate the events surrounding the siege which authorities say left 727 people injured.

More than 100 bodies have yet to be identified.

Analysts say that they doubt the value of such an inquiry.

"No official investigation will be able to carry out a probe that will be thorough, independent and objective, the way an investigation should be," said Masha Lipman, a political analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.