200 killed in Russian hostage crisis

9.00am

UPDATED - Russia's school hostage drama ended in gunfire and explosions yesterday after special forces stormed the gymnasium in which hundreds of hostages were being held.

More than 200 people - dozens of them children - were killed and hundreds were wounded.

Russian forces killed 27 hostage takers and captured three alive, Interfax news agency quoted officials as saying.

"Eight rebels were destroyed on the school grounds where the hostages were being held. The rest were in nearby areas," officials overseeing the operation were quoted as saying.

Three hostage-takers were captured alive, the agency said, citing "unconfirmed official data". Earlier reports had variously referred to 20 and eight hostage-takers being killed.

Terrified children, some naked and others with bloodied faces, ran screaming for safety after a 53-hour ordeal at the hands of gunmen with bombs strapped to their waists. Machinegun fire rattled out and helicopters clattered overhead.

Burly soldiers grabbed the fleeing children and rushed them to waiting medics. Some had blood streaming from wounds.

"I smashed the window to get out," one boy with a bandaged hand told Russian television. "People were running in all directions ... (The guerrillas) were shooting from the roof."

The children, many stripped to their underwear after two days without food or drink in stiflingly hot and crowded conditions, gulped down bottles of water and waited in a daze for relatives as gunfire crackled round them.

Official details and figures fluctuated amid the confusion and carnage in Beslan in the North Ossetia region bordering troubled Chechnya, where Moscow has faced a decade-old revolt.

"More than 200 people died as a result of shooting by the gunmen or from wounds received as a result of explosions set off by the gunmen," a Health Ministry source in North Ossetia was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Russian media said 860 pupils attended Middle School No.1. Their number may have been swollen to around 1,500 by parents and relatives attending a first-day ceremony traditional in Russian schools.

The Emergencies Ministry said 704 people, including 259 children, were in hospital. Many of the wounded were being treated in mobile hospitals set up by authorities.

Bullet holes riddled the red brick walls of the school and smoke rose from the collapsed roof of the gymnasium.

Six bodies lay covered with white sheets near the school gates, one the almost naked corpse of a girl of around 16.

Russian authorities said they had been forced into an unplanned rescue operation when the hostage-takers opened fire on fleeing children.

Moments before the battle erupted, officials said they had sent a vehicle to fetch the bodies of people killed in Wednesday's seizure of the school.

"No military action was planned. We were planning further talks," said Valery Andreyev, regional head of Russia's FSB security service.

Andreyev said 10 Arabs had been among about 20 gunmen killed, adding fuel to Russia's contention that Chechen rebels are backed by foreign Islamic militants.

Some officials suggested an al Qaeda financing link to the gunmen.

Russian President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000 on a promise to restore order in Chechnya after years of violent rebellion and hostage-takings similar to the one in Beslan.

A total of 129 hostages and 41 rebels were killed when Putin sent in troops to overpower Chechen rebels who seized a Moscow theatre in 2002. But violence in the region and elsewhere in Russia has raged on.

World leaders sent messages of support and sympathy to Russia, although many have questioned Moscow's human rights record in an often bloody campaign against Chechen rebels seeking independence for their region.

"This is yet another grim reminder of the lengths to which terrorists will go to threaten the civilised world," US President George W. Bush told a rally in West Allis, Wisconsin, where he was campaigning for re-election.

"We stand with the people of Russia."

Russian media said the fleeing gunmen split up after escaping from the school.

Alexander Dzasokhov, president of North Ossetia, said the gunmen had demanded an independent Chechnya, the first clear link between them and a decade-long separatist rebellion in the neighbouring province.

Attacks linked to Chechen separatists have surged in the past few weeks as Chechnya elected a head for its pro-Moscow administration to replace an assassinated predecessor.

Last week, suicide bombers were blamed for the near-simultaneous crash of two passenger planes in which 90 people died. This week, in central Moscow, a suicide bomber blew herself up, killing nine people.

How the drama unfolded

WEDNESDAY

* Gunmen seize the hostages in the North Ossetian town of Beslan on the first day of school term. Between seven and 16 people are killed.

* Hostage-takers, numbering between 17 and 40, threaten to kill 50 children for every fighter killed.

* Within hours, nearly 50 children escape. Gunmen set free 15 more.

* President Putin breaks off seaside holiday and returns to Moscow.

* Russia sends troops to guard nuclear facilities.

* Representative of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov denies involvement by forces loyal to him.

* United Nations Security Council demands release of hostages.

THURSDAY

* Captors free 26 women, children.

* Putin calls off trip to Turkey.

LAST NIGHT

* Explosions, shootings break out near school just after 9pm NZ time.

* Screaming children run out as soldiers carry away others.

* Gunmen try to force their way through crowds of hostages' relatives.

* Troops enter the school.

* Some of the escaped hostage- takers spread out across the town. One report says 13 are holed up in a local house surrounded by troops.

* Ambulances finally arrive to treat the wounded, hours after the attack.

* More than 300 injured people, including at least 180 children, are taken to hospital.

* Cameraman sees up to 100 corpses lying on the school gymnasium floor.

* Reporters say troops have secured the school site but, after more than four hours, fighting continues in other parts of the town.

TODAY

* Interfax quoted unnamed sources in the Russia's regional Health Ministry as saying more than 200 people were killed by fire from the militants or died from their wounds.

* Russian forces killed 27 hostage takers and captured three alive, Interfax news agency quoted officials as saying. Earlier reports had variously referred to 20 and eight hostage-takers being killed.

- REUTERS