Militants kill 200 as school siege ends

RUSSIA’S school siege ended in a chaotic bloodbath yesterday with more than 200 hostages and some of their captors killed when special forces stormed the building in an unplanned onslaught.

Russia’s ITAR-TASS news agency said 704 people had been admitted to hospital, including 259 children.

The hostage-takers, who had been demanding independence for Chechnya, fled the assault, took refuge in a nearby house and a basement in the school compound and traded fire with security forces. After about 12 hours, the Russian government said resistance had ended, though two other militants were still being sought. Twenty-two militants were killed, including 10 Arabs, officials said, and there were reports of three arrested.

There were reports of at least 100 dead in the school gym. Lines of dead children and adults could be seen lying on stretchers, covered with white sheets. Grieving parents and loved ones knelt beside the dead.

Bodies of children were laid out under a grove of trees near a hospital awaiting identification. Nearby, anxious crowds gathered around lists of injured posted on the walls of the hospital buildings.

The Arab presence among the attackers would support President Vladimir Putin’s contention that al-Qaida terrorists were involved in the Chechen conflict, where Muslim fighters have been battling Russian forces in a brutal war of independence on and off since the early 1990s.

Security sources accused al-Qaida of financing the takeover of the school and said Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev masterminded the raid. The report also said an alleged al-Qaida operative, Abu Omar as-Saif, co-ordinated the financing of the attack.

On the campaign trail in Wisconsin, US President George W Bush said the hostage siege was “another grim reminder” of the lengths to which terrorists will go.

Officials at the crisis headquarters said 95 victims have been identified so far. Health Ministry officials said the total death toll was more than 200.

Officials said security forces had not planned to assault the school, where the militants had been holding hostages - up to 1,500, according to one freed captive - in the gym since Wednesday morning. But the troops’ hand was forced when the militants set off explosions and began shooting yesterday afternoon, officials said.

A police explosives expert said the commandoes stormed the building after bombs wired to basketball hoops exploded in the gym. A captive who escaped the gym said a suicide bomber blew herself up.

Troops were engaged in “fierce fighting” for hours with militants, who still held some hostages, said Valery Andreyev, the regional Federal Security Service chief. Three militants reportedly barricaded themselves in the basement.

Soon after nightfall, a large explosion issued from the school, and officials at the crisis operations centre said later that resistance was over. They said four militants remained at large, but it was not clear if they held any more hostages. Three militants were reported to have been arrested after trying to escape in civilian dress.

A hostage who escaped said there were 28 militants, including women wearing camouflage uniforms. The hostage, who identified himself only as Teimuraz, said the militants began wiring the school with explosives as soon as they took control. He said they had placed bombs on both basketball hoops in the gym.

The bomb expert said the gym had also been rigged with explosives packed in plastic bottles strung up around the room and stuffed with metal objects.

The militants stormed the school in Beslan on Wednesday morning and kept the hundreds of children along with parents who had been bringing them for the first day of school and other adults in the sweltering gymnasium, refusing to allow deliveries of food and water.

“They didn’t let me go to the toilet for three days, not once. They never let me drink or go to the toilet,” Teimuraz said.

The chaotic climax to the standoff began around 1pm yesterday, when explosions collapsed part of the school roof and gunfire erupted from inside the building. Security forces moved in.

Aslanbek Aslakhanov, Mr Putin’s top aide on Chechnya, said security forces did not plan to storm the building, but were prompted to move by the first explosions. Witnesses said the militants opened fire on fleeing hostages and then began to escape themselves.

Russian forces had held back, perhaps remembering the deadly outcome two years ago when security troops used nerve gas before storming a Moscow theatre where Chechen terrorists had taken about 800 hostages. The nerve gas debilitated the captors but also was the cause of most of the 129 hostage deaths.

As the captives escaped, residents and troops ran through the streets, and the wounded were carried off on stretchers.

Soldiers and men in civilian clothes carried children - some naked, some clad only in underpants, some covered in blood - to a first-aid station set up behind an armoured personnel carrier. One child had a bandage on her head, others had bandaged limbs. Some women, newly freed from the school, fainted.

The children drank eagerly from bottles of water given to them once they reached safety. Many of the children were naked or only partly clothed because of the stifling heat in the gymnasium.

“I am helping you,” a man dressed in camouflage told a crying girl. Women gathered around, trying to soothe her, saying: “It’s all right. It’s all right.”