Corpses recovered as school death toll reaches 250
Emergency workers were today continuing the horrifying task of clearing the bodies of children and adults from the devastated scene of Russia’s bloody school siege, as the official death toll reached 250.
Around 200 of the dead recovered so far were children, officials said.
Dozens of corpses were being pulled out of the shattered and smouldering buildings as the hundreds of injured underwent treatment at hospitals across the region.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin made a pre-dawn visit to the scene in Beslan, a North Ossetian parliamentary spokeswoman confirmed that at least 250 people are known to be dead.
Fatima Khabalova said: “According to my data, there are 250 dead, four-fifths of them children.”
She confirmed dozens of corpses remain inside the school and said emergency workers had removed 150 bodies earlier today.
North Ossetian Health Minister Boris Dzgoyev said 85 of the dead recovered this morning were children.
Mr Putin had earlier toured the heavily damaged school complex, still smouldering from the waves of explosions which tore through the site’s sports hall yesterday.
Hours after commandos stormed into the gym and began running gun battles with militants, Mr Putin ordered the region’s borders to be sealed off as a hunt continues for the remaining fugitives.
“All Russia grieves with you,” Mr Putin told officials in the North Ossetia region as messages of sympathy and support continued to pour in from across the globe.
Around 1,000 hostages had been crammed into the school’s small gym for almost three days, before the stand-off came to a bloody end yesterday.
Russian authorities said hostages began to flee after militants set off some of their crude explosives – possibly by accident – as emergency workers entered the school to collect the bodies of slain hostages.
As children and adults began to run to their freedom, the kidnappers opened fire – sparking the order for troops to storm the building.
Bombs were later found strapped to the crumbled ceiling of the sports hall and hanging from basketball hoops.
US President George Bush spoke to Mr Putin by telephone and the White House said he had branded the actions of the Chechen separatists as “barbaric” and “despicable”.
The victims had yesterday been seen in states of shock as scores of dazed and tearful children emerged from their ordeal bloodied and semi-naked.
Amid scenes of chaos, the dead lay lined up on stretchers outside the brick buildings of the school.
Survivors said their masked and camouflaged captors had refused requests for water, leaving the hostages to drink their own urine.
Alla Gadieyeva, 24, held captive with her seven-year-old-son said: “We were in complete fear. People were praying all the time and those that didn’t know how to pray – we taught them.”
The Federal Security Service confirmed last night that 10 militants killed in gunfights with security forces were from Arab countries.
Muslim separatists, including soldiers from the Middle East, have been fighting Russian forces in Chechnya for most of the past decade.
It is thought that the kidnappers had demanded a Russian withdrawal of troops from Chechnya in return for the safe release of the hostages.
