Parents and relatives anguished at siege school scene

Weeping and weary, pacing and shaking their heads again and again, they wait for news of the children and their teachers.

Thousands of people crowded in and around the Russian industrial town of Beslan’s House of Culture in the pre-dawn hours as a hostage crisis at a school dragged on, their anxiety sharpened by sporadic sounds of gunfire.

Police blocked off the site where armed militants took hundreds of hostages in a raid on the first day of classes, leaving the school hidden from sight behind a block of buildings. That left the distraught vigil-holders little to do but try to find what comfort they could.

Some curled up on benches to fall into fitful sleep. Others leaned in exhaustion against their spouses.

“The poor children, the poor, poor children,” a woman sobbed as others around her talked in hushed tones.

"They’re telling us nothing. I’m not hearing anything. It’s frightening. It’s awful,” said Svetlana Tsakayeva, whose grown daughter and three grandchildren aged 10, six and six months all were hostages at Middle School Number 1 a few hundred yards away.

One man said it was clear to him that the hostage-taking was connected to the other terror acts that have shaken the country in the past week: two airliners downed, apparently by explosives, killing 90, a suicide bombing in Moscow that killed nine and wounded scores.

“Of course, they’re linked. It’s all connected. They know exactly what’s going on in Moscow and they’re not telling us,” said the man, who refused to give his name.

Armed guards in ponchos roamed through the crowds outside near an armoured personnel carrier.

People milled about the streets, stepping through mud and puddles from an evening downpour, greeting each other dismally.

Inside the House of Culture, dozens sat in the auditorium with coats draped over them as blankets.

One woman whispered a silent prayer, crossed herself three times and bowed her head. Men anxiously smoked cigarettes.

Fatima Berezova, a doctor at one of the local medical clinic, came because she has many relatives who have children taken hostage.

“What kind of a reaction can a person have? It’s horrible,” she said. “How can one person do this to another person, never mind to children?”