Siege town children return to school

Children returned to schools in the grief-stricken southern Russian town of Belsan today, two weeks after armed militants seized more than 1,200 hostages at a school in a raid that shocked the world.

Students began the school day with a minute’s silence, and officials said the town’s seven schools would have a shortened day.

Children dressed up in suits and bows were met at one school by school officials, along with at least one man, apparently a law enforcement officer, dressed in camouflage.

Classes had been scheduled to start in Beslan on Tuesday, but authorities decided to put off the opening so that military and police could continue searching schools for weapons and explosives.

Soslan Sikoyev, acting regional interior minister for North Ossetia, said authorities were taking extra security measures, including daily armed patrols of schools. There was also a proposal to have regular inspections at schools and kindergartens.

Children from School Number One – where hundreds of terrified children and adults were held by militants – are recuperating from the horror, along with their families, at sanatoriums in the Black Sea resort of Sochi and other locations.

At least 330 people were killed – nearly half of them children – when the three-day seizure ended on September 3 in explosions and gunfire. Authorities say all the hostage-takers were killed except one suspected attacker who was captured.

Zarema Burgalova, a North Ossetian education official, said many students still suffering from shock and stress were not expected to show up for classes. She also said students in older classes would be discussing the tragedy and their thoughts for the future.