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Russia frees hostages in bloody fight

Russia's hostage crisis came to a chaotic climax yesterday, erupting into explosions, gunfire and screams of fleeing children as commandos stormed the school where militants strapped with bombs had held hundreds of captives for a third day. More than 100 people were killed and 400 others wounded, reports said.

Some 100 bodies lay on the floor of the school gymnasium where the hostages were held for three days -- some apparently killed when the roof collapsed, reports from the Interfax news agency and private British television ITN said.

Russian forces killed five of the hostage-takers but 13 others escaped, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Troops backed by tanks were pursuing the militants, some of whom were said to be holed up in a house in the area as others attempted to blend in with the former hostages and crowd of townspeople in Beslan, ITAR-Tass said.

Police said the hostage-takers had split into three groups during the storming, which appears to have been unplanned. Some of them remained in the school, others apparently sought to escape southward in the town and others tried to mix in with the hostages, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russian authorities claimed to have control of the school, but sporadic gunfire continued to ring out in the area some three hours after the commandos' raid.

Regional president Alexander Dzasokhov said the hostage-takers had demanded that Russian troops leave Chechnya -- the first clear indication of their demands and of a direct link between Wednesday's attack in the region of North Ossetia and the ongoing war in the neighboring region.

In a chaotic scene around the school, hundreds of people ran through the streets, columns of smoke soared overhead and the cries of children -- many of them naked -- and the wounded filled the air. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances speeding by, the windows streaked with blood.

Commandos, residents and journalists scurried around the burning brick school. Some camouflage-clad soldiers climbed inside through a lower floor window, all the glass missing. The militants had broken most of the windows earlier in what might have been an effort to prevent authorities from using a knockout gas against them.

Part of the building's roof had collapsed -- apparently killing many of the hostages and leaving a jagged opening to the sky, Interfax said.

More than 400 others, hostages and local residents, were injured in the chaos, reports said. A cameraman for private British television ITN reported catching a glimpse of some 100 bodies inside the gymnasium.

A regional health ministry spokesman said there were 376 wounded in hospitals in Beslan and the regional capital Vladikavkaz, including 101 children. A hospital chief said 69 children were admitted to one hospital, five in grave condition, the head of the hospital said.

At a hospital about a mile from the school, anguished crowds mobbed arriving ambulances in a desperate bid to see who was inside.

Also see story:
Caucasus region has rich history of hostage-taking
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