Amid a wave of attacks linked to Chechnya that have now killed hundreds in just over a week, Putin -- who rose to power on a law and order ticket -- vowed before the nation to toughen up security and admitted to some "weakness" in the past.
The interior minister of North Ossetia resigned within hours of Putin's comments on Saturday.
Security forces alleged the attack had been meticulously planned weeks before pupils returned to school on Wednesday after the summer break, with militants having posed as builders to stash explosives in the school.
Survivors told of the terror inside the gym, where they were forced to drink their own urine to avoid dehydration and to strip down to their underwear to cope with the stifling heat.
But Friday's harrowing scenes were a grim reminder of a botched rescue attempt of hostages in a Moscow theater in October 2002 in which 129 hostages were killed -- most of them when security forces pumped a toxic gas into the building.
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