Bloodied and semi-naked children flee living hell

DOZENS of bloodied and semi-naked schoolchildren were seen rushing away from the chaos of the school siege yesterday as special forces stormed the compound to bring a dramatic end to the three-day stand-off.

Dazed and traumatised, they ran and stumbled from the sports hall where they had been held since Wednesday after troops blasted a hole in a wall to offer them an escape route.

Amid heavy gunfire, anguished parents raced towards them, many carrying their children away from the danger as intense fighting continued around the site.

One man dashed to embrace two youngsters, holding them aloft in the air as many around them wept uncontrollably.

Hundreds of parents had held a nervous vigil close to the scene at the town's House of Culture, the hours punctuated by sporadic explosions, which raised the terrifying prospect that their children could be dead.

With the crack of gunfire still resounding at the scene yesterday morning, shocked hostages wandered aimlessly through the crowds of adults and clad troops.

Exhausted and dehydrated, many collapsed on to banks of stretchers placed on strips of grass at the side of pavements.

Close by, other stretchers carried the corpses of 10 people.

One boy, looking pale and anguished, told reporters he had been so shocked at his release he was unable to recognise his own parents.

He said that the children had been denied water and had become so thirsty that they had been forced to drink their own urine.

Hostages also claimed that temperatures inside the sports hall had become so intense that the pupils were forced to remove their clothes. Scores of ambulances arrived at the scene as the first youngsters dashed to freedom and locals brought a stream of cars and trucks to the site to help transport the injured to hospital.

As attempts to free the captured pupils and teachers became more frantic, residents and parents joined paramedics to make forays inside the school.

More than 200 were feared wounded and giant yellow tents were erected at the site to allow paramedics to offer first aid. Many teenagers and younger pupils were seen with bandages covering wounds to their hands, feet and faces.

Other children were seen being pulled unconscious from the school, apparently suffering from burns and heavy bleeding.

As distraught adults continued to comb the crowds and run unchecked into the school buildings, the sound of further gunfire rang out as troops appeared to flood into the sports hall.

Though officials claimed that all hostages had been accounted for, witnesses claim townspeople were making their own searches alongside soldiers despite renewed exchanges of fire.

Windows were smashed to allow people access as they picked through rubble caused when the gym's roof collapsed as a result of an earlier explosion.

One escaped hostage, a man suffering multiple injuries, described how a huge blast ripped through the school followed by panic and chaos.

With columns of smoke overhead, children and adults outside drank from bottles of water distributed to them once they reached safety.

Reports claimed that the militants had fired on the hostages as they ran screaming from the building and many women were seen fainting.

Several of the adults, some covered in blood, were also carried away on stretchers.

Three fire engines arrived at the scene later as efforts were made to put out a blaze inside the school compound.

Amid the hurried activity at the school site, witnesses said a suspected kidnapper was attacked by a mob.

The militant, identified by his black gloves, was seen on the ground being repeatedly kicked before troops attempted to intervene.

It was not clear if the hostage taker was still alive when he was attacked by the crowd.

In the town of Beslan, it was claimed that some of a group of 13 militants who escaped were confronted by soldiers after they holed up in a house.

Despite continuing battles between militants and Russian troops in the red brick school complex, reporters snatched a first glimpse of the devastation left behind inside the gym yesterday afternoon.

ITN cameraman Sacha Lomakin described seeing dozens of bodies strewn on the floor of the sports hall, claiming that he saw about 100 corpses.

Other witnesses said the gym's smouldering roof had caved in, killing dozens of hostages.

Five hours after the first hostages streamed out of the complex, intermittent exchanges of gunfire could be heard at the site and a thick odour of gunfire hung in the air.

As parents continued to wait for confirmation of the death toll, crowds gathered at hospitals, mobbing arriving ambulances in a bid to trace missing relatives.