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| Caucasus |
| Beslan timeline... |
| 2004-09-03 |
| 15:22 All hostages have been taken out of school According to the latest report by Interfax, all hostages have been taken out of the school building in Beslan. Scores have been rushed to hospitals. //Interfax 15:08 Up to 200 Russia hostages in hospital - agencies Up to 200 wounded hostages in the Russian school siege have been taken to local hospitals, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Friday. It quoted local police as saying that others with more serious wounds were taken to the regional capital Vladikavkaz for treatment. It gave no figures for those. //Reuters 15:03 Rebels try to break out — Tass Some rebels who took hundreds hostage in a southern Russian school tried to break out on Friday, heading for a rail junction in the town of Beslan, Tass news agency quoted officials as saying. Reuters correspondent Richard Ayton saw dozens of civilian cars converging on the school. Ambulances and private cars evacuated wounded while medics tended to the wounded. "I've seen drivers being stopped and their cars commandeered," he reported. //Reuters 14:54 Special forces blast way into Beslan school Loud blasts and intense gunfire broke out on Friday around a southern Russian school where an armed gang had taken hundreds of children hostage. "There is an intense battle going on," Reuters correspondent Oliver Bullough reported from the scene. "It sounded like someone was dropping something huge from the sky onto a huge sheet of plastic." Tass news agency said special forces had blown a hole in a school building to let hostages escape. Bullough, around 150 metres (yards) from the school, saw three armoured personel carriers with heavily armed soldiers on board approaching the school. //Reuters 14:39 Paramedics with stretchers enter Russian school Paramedics carrying stretchers on Friday entered the Russian school where hundreds of children and adults had been held by armed militants, witnesses said. They went into the premises in Beslan, southern Russia, after Russian forces took control and rebels fled amid gunfire and loud explosions. Ekho Moskvy radio reported that 158 children had been taken to hospital. //Reuters 14:18 Most children alive,5 rebels dead—media Most of the children taken hostage in a southern Russian school are alive, Interfax news agency quoted a security official as saying on Friday. "Those children who remained in the school, in general, did not suffer. The ones who suffered were the children in the group which ran from the school and on whom the fighters opened fire," the official was quoted as saying. NTV television reported that five of the armed gang which seized the school on Wednesday had been killed. //Reuters 14:17 Soldiers fight rebels to end Russian school siege Russian soldiers battled Chechen separatists on Friday to end a two-day-old school siege as naked children ran out screaming amid explosions and machinegun fire. A Reuters correspondent saw soldiers carrying children away from the school, some covered in blood, as military helicopters circled overhead and ambulances ferried wounded hostages away, all to the sound of continuous gunfire. Witnesses said troops had entered the school, whose roof had partly collapsed, according to officials quoted by Interfax. The Tass news agency reported that some 40 children had been evacuated from the school by 1:50 p.m. (0950 GMT). Interfax news agency reported that some of the group of hostage-takers, believed to number about 40, had tried to break out through crowds of frantic relatives waiting near the school as Russian special forces moved in. Others reported soldiers firing on fleeing gunmen. Officials had said some 500 people were being held in the school in North Ossetia, near Chechnya, but released hostages said the number could be nearer to 1,500, lying on top of each other in increasingly desperate conditions. Children, some half-naked, drank heavily from bottles of water after two days without drink. Some children lay on stretchers. It was unclear what had triggered the battle, a few hours after Russia insisted it would not resort to force to free the children, parents and teachers being held for a third day without food or water. Alexander Dzasokhov, president of the province of North Ossetia, said the 40 or so masked gunmen were demanding an independent Chechnya, the first clear link between them and the decade-long separatist rebellion in the neighbouring province. //Reuters 13:48 Hostage-takers try to force their way through crowd Gunmen who took hundreds hostage in a southern Russian school tried on Friday to break out through crowds of relatives nearby, Interfax news agency reported. The agency reported that security forces fired on the gunmen as a three-day hostage siege reached a violent and bloody climax. A group of children stripped to their underwear could be seen on TV footage fleeing the scene. A bleeding, unconscious child was carried away on a stretcher, a Reuters witness said. //Reuters 13:27 Soldiers carry children out of Russia siege school Russian soldiers carried away children rescued from a school in southern Russia where an armed group is holding hundreds of people captive, a Reuters witness said on Friday. Russian news agencies reported that a group of hostages had escaped from the school amid a heavy gunfire and explosions from the scene. //Reuters 13:26 Explosions and shooting at Russian school siege Explosions resounded and automatic fire broke out on Friday near the Russian school where hundreds of children and adults were being held by an armed group, a Reuters correspondent at the scene said. Russian news agencies said a group of hostages had escaped, and the corresdpondent saw soldiers carrying children away from the school. A few hours earlier, Russia had insisted it would not resort to force to free hundreds of children, parents and teachers being held for a third day without food or water by gunmen demanding independence for rebel Chechnya. Officials said some 500 people were being held in the school in North Ossetia, near Chechnya, but released hostages said the number could be nearer 1,500, lying on top of each other in increasingly desperate conditions. Alexander Dzasokhov, president of the province of North Ossetia, said the 40 or so masked gunmen were demanding an independent Chechnya, the first clear link between them and the decade-long separatist rebellion in the neighbouring province. But he tried to reassure hundreds of fraught parents who spent the night near the school in the town of Beslan, telling reporters: "I tell you frankly and honestly ... the option of force is not being considered." Reports from some of the women and children released on Thursday painted a grim picture. "You know, there aren't 350 people (the previous official number) in there, but 1,500 in all. People are lying one on top of another," Zalina Dzandarova, a 27-year-old woman, told the daily Kommersant. One unnamed woman freed on Thursday told Izvestia that during the night children occasionally began to cry: "Then the fighters would fire in the air to restore quiet. In the morning they told us they would not give us anything more to drink because the authorities were not ready to negotiate. "When children went to the toilet, some tried to drink from the tap. The fighters stopped them straight away." Dzasokhov said the captors had made their demands in talks on Thursday with Ruslan Aushev, a moderate former leader of nearby Ingushetia province, who has taken on a mediating role. "The demands relayed to Aushev yesterday ... were that Chechnya must be an independent state," he said. //Reuters 11:52 Force not planned to end Russia siege-local leader Security forces are not planning to use force to end a school siege in southern Russia where an armed group has taken at least 500 hostages, a regional leader said on Friday. "I tell you frankly and honestly ... the option of force is not being considered," Alexander Dzasokhov, president of the province of North Ossetia, told journalists. The armed group is demanding independence for Chechnya, Dzasokhov also said. //Reuters |
| Posted by:Fred |