Hundreds gather to mourn air collision victims
Hundreds of people have crowded into the city square in Ufa to mourn the 45 Russian schoolchildren who died in last week's midair disaster over Germany.
Orthodox Christian and Muslim clergymen offered prayers over the flower-laden coffins - the first 33 bodies to have arrived back in Bashkortostan.
Seventy-one people were killed when a Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154 bound for Barcelona, collided into a DHL cargo jet.
"It is a great and heavy loss for everybody," Talgat Tadzhuddin, the chief Russian Islamic leader, said at the ceremony.
Bashkortostan Prime Minister Rafail Baidavletov read a message of sympathy at the ceremony and said a similar memorial would be held on Friday, when 28 more bodies are to be returned.
Parents have decided against a suggestion the children be buried in a common grave. However, media reports said some of the victims would be interred near one another at an Ufa cemetery.
The investigation has focused on the actions of Swiss air traffic control, in particular whether they gave the Russian pilot sufficient warning to descend before the collision at 35,000ft.
Yunir Valeyev lost his son Vener in the accident, and said all the parents were anxiously following the investigation.
"We have very many questions and I think it is the duty of every parent to find out to the end how it happened," he said.
