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Captors release 26 hostages from school

Russian hostage crises * Oct. 25, 2002: Chechen rebels took about 800 people hostage in a Moscow theater. All 41 attackers were shot and 129 hostages died. * Jan. 16, 1996: Six Turks and three Russians held 255 hostages on a ferry in the Black Sea. The attackers surrendered. * Jan. 9, 1996: Chechen militants seized 3,000 hostages at a hospital in the southern Russian town of Kizlyar. Rebels released most, then headed for Chechnya with about 100 hostages. At least 78 were killed in a weeklong fight. * June 14, 1995: Chechen gunmen took 2,000 hostages at a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk, near Chechnya. More than 100 were killed. Source: AP

As armed captors released 26 women and children yesterday from the southern Russian school where hundreds of others were still held, the UN and governments were united in a chorus of condemnation of the hostage-taking that has shocked the world.

Meanwhile, two large explosions roared out yesterday from the area of a cordoned-off school in southern Russia, where armed militants are holding 350 hostages including children for the second day.

A cloud of black smoke rose from the vicinity of the school after the blasts, which took place about 30 hours after the school was seized. The immediate area around the school had been cordoned off and details of the blasts could not be seen.

Officials could not immediately be reached for clarification, but a correspondent for Russia's NTV television said the explosions sounded like grenade launchers that had been fired from the school.

After the first blast, many of the anxious relatives and neighbors of the hostages who were milling in the area hurried toward the cordons, the ones in front craning their necks across the police lines to try to discern what had happened.

President Vladimir Putin pledged yesterday to do everything possible to save the lives of the hostages. The militants had reportedly threatened to blow up the building if authorities stormed it, and warned that they would kill hostages if any of their gang was hurt or injured.

In his first public remarks since the Wednesday morning hostage-taking, Putin said: "Our main task is, of course, to save the life and health of those who became hostages."

As negotiators scrambled to find a way out of the tense stand-off, crowds of distraught relatives and townspeople waited helplessly for news of their neighbors and loved ones, their distress sharpened by the sporadic rattle of gunfire from the cordoned-off crisis site.

Details about who the militants are and what they wanted remained unclear.

Pediatrician Leonid Roshal, who aided hostages during the deadly seizure of a Moscow theater by Chechens in 2002, was leading the talks. Russia's NTV television reported that Roshal, whose participation the militants had demanded, conveyed to the hostage-takers the promise of a safe corridor out, but the offer was refused.

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Amid crisis, Russia calls UN meeting
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