It is not clear how many hostages are free
Posted on 09/03/2004 3:36:01 AM PDT by yankeedame
Last Updated: Friday, 3 September, 2004, 10:01 GMT 11:01 UK
Battle erupts at Russian school
It is not clear how many hostages are free
Heavy gunfire and explosions have engulfed the school in North Ossetia, where hundreds of children and adults are being held hostage. A large number of people have been seen fleeing the premises, many of them covered in blood.
The hostage takers apparently tried to escape the school building together with some of the hostages as soldiers fired on them.
Helicopters hovered overhead and there were troops everywhere.
Parts of the school are reported to have been blown up, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reported, and a section of the roof appears to have collapsed.
Pandemonium
People could be seen running from the building - some of them semi-naked - as a thick pall of black smoke hovered overhead.
There is pandemonium in the streets surrounding the school, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas, who is also at the scene.
The armed group which is holding the hostages were earlier reported to have demanded independence for neighbouring Chechnya.
On Thursday, 26 women and young children were released, and some of them provided the first details of conditions inside the school.
"You know there are not 300 people in there, but altogether 1,500. People are lying on top of each other," 27-year-old teacher Zalina Dzandarova told the Kommersant newspaper.
RECENT DEADLY ATTACKS
-31 Aug 2004 - Suicide bomb kills 10 at north Moscow train station
-24 Aug 2004 - Two planes crash after leaving same Moscow airport, killing 89
-May 2004 - Chechen president killed in blast at stadium in Grozny
-Feb 2004 - Bomb attack kills at least 39 people on Moscow underground
-Dec 2003 - Female suicide bomber kills five near Moscow's Red Square
"They took some of the injured out of the gym and finished them off right there in the corridor," she said.
Officials put the number of hostages at 354 before Thursday's release, although the school has more than 1,000 pupils.
The hostage takers had been refusing to allow food, water and medicine into the building.
Trip wires were believed to have been laid around the school, with the attackers threatening to blow it up if it was stormed by police.
Hundreds of relatives of those being held inside the school who had been waiting anxiously outside the security cordon reacted in panic to the outbreak of fighting.
Officials said the release of the 26 people on Thursday came after mediation efforts by the former President of the neighbouring region of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev.
First school day
The attackers - both men and women, some wearing bomb belts - struck on Wednesday, the first day of the new school year in Russia.
Click for a detailed map of Beslan
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Many parents and other relatives were inside the school, helping their children celebrate the new year, when the assault began.
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that everything would be done to save the lives of the hostages.
In his first public comments on the crisis, more than 24 hours after it began, President Putin said: "Our main task is, of course, to save the lives and health of those who became hostages.
"All actions of our forces working on the hostages' release will be devoted and be subject to this task exclusively."
The school crisis came a day after a suspected suicide bombing in Moscow killed 10 people. Last week, the mid-air explosions of two passenger planes left 89 dead.
1 - Main entrance
2 - Area where gunfire began
3 - Hostages are being held in the school gym, which has reportedly been packed with explosives and mines
4 - Side entrance
5 - There have been reports of children being used as human shields at the back windows
6 - As the attack began a number of people hid in the boiler room and later escaped
Not even close.
Turns out the "seperatists" are a minority though, as well..
Most Chechens want their own country, but wish to remain within the russian federation..
Weird, Huh ??
The Chechens compromise a criminal element in the old Soviet Union. They are like the Mafia on steroids.
Probably the reason they want to remain in Russia is because it makes it easier for them to continue to monopolize the criminal conspiracy they control.
Chechnyans, like Palestinians, are dangerous lunatics.
?????
Please elucidate.
North Ossetia, where all this is happening, is also predominantly Islamic..
Chechnyans consider it part of Chechnya...
These terrorists are/were terrorising, killing, taking hostage, their own people..
How stupid is that ??
Religion.. South Ossetia is predominantly Christian.. ( That would be Russian Orthodox Catholic. There isn't any other christian religion of any note throughout russia. )
But the "separatists" are Muslims. The Orthodox living in Chechenya would prefer being part of Holy Russia to living under sharia.
I sure as heck know I would..
Even an atheist would prefer russia over sharia..
They most certainly are, and need to become part of the overall war on terror ASAP, and the word chechnya needs to be stricken from all correspondance relative to these folks.
There needs to be a world wide ad campaign telling everyone what kind of Islamic, Mohammeden, Muslim, terrorists these folks are, both men and women, and shedding the light of scrutiny such that it will cause the Muslim world to either divest itself of all radicals, or admit for all the world to see, that Islam is what it is.
To the world, Islam, fosters, cares for, promotes, loves, provides a home for, gives of its means to build up, even cherishes radicalism, terrorism, blood, horror, murder, bombing, kidnapping, and every form of activity that would be regarded as uncivilized by the remainder of the world. Acceptance of these things in the guise religious tolerance, should cease and desist immediately. "You are either with us or against us".
I was just thinking the same thing. What do they possibly hope to accomplish by this? But then I remembered why we call it terrorism. It has no purpose other than to instill terror in our hearts. Terrorism is the modern face of Evil.
I was taught that there is no evil. Everything is relative. Evil has raised its head and proved itself for all who will see.
May God bless and comfort those families.
"newborn section"
Ohhh, I wish nobody thought of that. That's probably exactly what we'll see next.
Maybe atheists in particular would prefer living in Holy Russia to living under sharia even more than Christians would: under sharia an atheist must convert or die, while a Christian could accept dhimmitude.
Many of us have been praying for the innocent in this atrocity. Hopefully their death toll will be low and that of the terrorists 100%.
I agree. The mo-slimes would love to murder American children; and, as we continue to bring them in, it WILL happen.
Been there once, due to severe seasickness, and it's a really, really, really nasty sensation.
Thanks for the background.
Yeah, it's weird.
Earlier today I heard a report that some of the terrorists were Arab. I've been away from the news all day, so I don't know if that story has changed.
They are saying that 10 of the dead terrorists were Arab.
First, children and adults not stripped to search, they strip selves because they are in 45 degree celcius building and heat can kill. Where you get the bomb thing is impossible to understand...to many science fiction books.
Putin and his gutless functionaries need to step up.
here is a little reality check...it was Bush Jr who in 2001, Spring 2001 use UN, Britian, France and Germany to stop Putin in bombing Taliban...then they are great American allies because they do what US want...it would seem to many here that to be friend of America must mean to be mindless lapdog...that is not friend that is bully. Further, in Spring 2001, Bush give Taliban (THAT IS BUSH GIVE) $48 million because they burn some fields of poppies. US further give Georgia $78 million for WOT while it allow anyone into Pankisy (back door of Chechnya) as long as they do not blow up in Georgia.
Further, Washington is a whore for Saudi Arabia, both parties show selves as petro dollar narcotics. Saudi Arabia and evil (US allie) Pakistan both arm islamics, both arm Al Quida and both recognize (and only they at that) Taliban.
Further Bush like Clinton still support islamic KLA and PLO (it is Powell who give Yassar $60 million) and Bosnia. Why?
I do not defend that Russia help Iran, one of 3 main centers of terror. But it is US who support other 2 main centers: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Iraq don't seem to be working.
Where is absent US support against SA who pay for Chechins.
We are Eastern Orthodox Christians not Orthodox Catholics, sorry but not the same or nearly. Catholics leave Orthodox Church and totally split with no connection to us at all.
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