School siege ends in bloodbath - more than 150 dead

Russia’s school siege ended in a chaotic bloodbath today with more than 150 hostages and some of their captors killed when special forces stormed the building in an unplanned onslaught.

The bloody outcome reflected badly on President Vladimir Putin who had pledged to do everything possible to save the lives of the 1,200 hostages - almost 850 of them children.

His adviser on Chechnya, Aslanbek Aslakhanov, said the death toll might be “much more” than 150.

And military chiefs face the axe for allowing their troops – including crack special forces – to launch the raid.

“No military action was planned. We were planning further talks,” said the regional head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Valery Andreyev.

Putin was heavily criticised two years ago when Russian troops botched the rescue of hostages in a Moscow theatre siege and more than 120 people died.

Troops surrounding School Number One in the small Caucasus town of Beslan, 1,00 miles from Moscow, were expecting another long day of waiting and negotiations when suddenly all planning was thrown out of the window shortly after 10.20am Irish time.

Reports suggested the militants had agreed to let Russian authorities retrieve the bodies of 10 to 20 hostages who had been killed.

A local MP, Azamat Kadykov, had told hostages’ relatives that 20 adult men had been executed.

Emergency personnel went to get the bodies, and the gunmen began setting off bombs and opening fire on people around the school,

A group of near naked children and their mothers then began fleeing from the school.

Some gunmen – or women – left the school and began chasing the escapees.

Russian special forces began firing back, and in the words of one local “All hell broke lose.”

An explosion – thought to be the gunmen detonating charges – blew the roof off the school gym where hundreds of hostages where being held.

An ITN cameraman who briefly entered the gym three hours later counted about 100 bodies but could not say if they were children.

As attack helicopters hovered overhead, Russian commandos stormed the school and within an hour claimed they had secured the building.

That turned out to be an optimistic statement as fighting continued into the evening and some children were said to be still being held hostage in the school

At least three gunmen, including possible their leader, were said to be blockaded in the school basement seven hours after the onslaught began.

Shortly after 8pm (17.00 Irish time), a powerful blast rang out on the school grounds, and an official said a member of an elite security unit died saving two young girls.

In the mayhem some of the gunmen – and at least two gun women – escaped with the fleeing hostages and were being hunted throughout the North Ossetia town of 30,000, near the Chechen border.

Officials said more than 150 people were killed and in excess of 500 others- almost half of them children – were wounded in the onslaught.

About 100 bodies lay on the floor of the school gymnasium where the hostages were held for three days – some apparently killed when the roof collapsed, reports from the Interfax news agency and British ITN said.

Russian forces killed 20 of the hostage-takers – some described as “Arab mercenaries” – but 13 others escaped.

Troops backed by tanks were pursuing the militants, some of whom were said to be holed up in a house in the area as others attempted to blend in with the former hostages and crowd of townspeople in Beslan.

Regional FSB chief Valery Andreyev said Russian forces were conducting a ”fierce fight” to free remaining hostages. He said at least 60 dead victims had been identified.

Police said the hostage-takers had split into three groups during the storming. Some of them remained in the school, others apparently sought to escape southward in the town and others tried to mix in with the hostages.

Regional president Alexander Dzasokhov said the hostage-takers had demanded that Russian troops leave Chechnya.

In a chaotic scene around the school, hundreds of people ran through the streets, columns of smoke soared overhead and the cries of children – many of them naked – and the wounded filled the air.

Commandos, locals and journalists scurried around the burning brick school. Some camouflage-clad soldiers climbed inside through a lower floor window, all the glass missing. The militants had broken most of the windows earlier in what might have been an effort to prevent authorities from using a knockout gas against them.

Part of the building’s roof had collapsed – apparently killing many of the hostages and leaving a jagged opening to the sky, Interfax said.

At a hospital about a mile from the school, anguished crowds mobbed arriving ambulances in a desperate bid to see who was inside.

Under an adjacent grove of pine and spruce trees, some two dozen children lay on bloodied stretchers. Parents and relatives hugged and kissed them, giving them water.

One weeping men led away a young boy muddied, bleeding and only wearing underpants.

The smell of gunpowder lingered heavily in the air around the school.

A nurse spreading sheets on stretchers said officials expected “very many” wounded, and it was still unclear how many people had been taken hostage – with estimates ranging from hundreds up to 1,500.

Early reports suggested the militants had agreed to let Russia retrieve the bodies of 10 to 20 hostages who had been killed. A local legislator, Azamat Kadykov, had told the hostages’ relatives that 20 adult men had been executed.

Emergency personnel went to get the bodies, and the militants began setting off bombs and opening fire on people around the school, ITAR-Tass said. Some 30 women and children broke out of the building, some bloodied and screaming, and commandos then launched the assault.

Interfax said militants fired at children who ran from the building, and unconfirmed reports said some of the hostage-takers, possibly including women bearing suicide belts, may have taken hostages with them.

Women escaping the building were seen fainting and others, some covered in blood, were carried away on stretchers. Many children were only partly clothed because of the stifling heat in the gym where they had been held since the militants took the building some 52 hours earlier.

Interfax said the school’s roof had collapsed – possibly from the explosives some militants had strapped to their bodies. The militants had reportedly threatened to blow up the building if authorities tried to storm.

The militants had freed about 26 women and children on Thursday, and Russian officials and others had been in on-and-off negotiations with the hostage-takers, but with few signs of progress toward a resolution.

There were conflicting reports of the number of hostages, with official saying about 350 and people among a small group freed on Wednesday saying there were about 1,500.

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that everything possible would be done to end the “horrible” crisis and save the lives of the children and other hostages – a task he stressed was all-important, indicating are would be taken to avoid casualties in efforts to free them.