Confusion, fear and anguish reign at siege scene

Under a grove of pine and spruce trees, the children laid on stretchers - dazed, shaken, fragile, and bloodied. Parents hugged them tenderly, cried softly, gave them water. They were safe.

Only moments earlier, the same children had been at the centre of a maelstrom of explosions and bullets, of shattered windows, bodies and masonry – a mind-bending cauldron of bloodshed that brought Russia’s hostage crisis to a head Friday and left more than 150 people dead.