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Hostages: More than 200 dead
03/09/2004 21:22 - (SA)
Beslan - More than 200 people died on Friday as a result of the fighting here to end a stand-off with militants holding hundreds of hostages, Interfax news agency reported quoting health officials.
"More than 200 people died immediately, after being shot by the militants, or else later succumbed to their injuries," said the report, quoting the health ministry of the republic of North Ossetia.
Itar-Tass news agency reported earlier that 704 people had been admitted to hospital with injuries, 259 of them children.
World leaders expressed horror on Friday at the bloody end to the Russian hostage crisis, calling it a tragedy which resulted from a "nauseating" and "barbaric" terrorist attack.
United States President George W Bush, speaking just days before the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the US, said the large-scale hostage taking in Russia was "another grim reminder" of terrorist tactics.
He mourned the loss of life in a raid to end the stand-off.
A 'deep human tragedy'
"We stand with the people of Russia, we send them our thoughts and prayers in this terrible situation," he said.
European Union foreign ministers, whose back-to-work meeting after the summer holidays was overshadowed by the Russian drama, called it a "deep human tragedy", but conceded that Moscow seemingly had no choice in the outcome.
The comments came after the fast-moving and unexpected end to the hostage crisis in the north Ossetia town of Beslan, where special Russian forces had been besieging militants holding more than 1 000 people hostage in a school.
According to the Interfax news agency, more than 100 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in the climax to the nearly three-day standoff.
In Washington, the US state department condemned the hostage-taking saying "this was a particularly barbaric act of terrorism that put at risk the lives of dozens of children as well as their parents and teachers".
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said "terrorism must be fought wherever it presents itself".
"Terrorists with no conscience tried to achieve political objectives by killing people."
Vatican laments 'astonishing ferocity'
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned all terrorist acts.
"He was horrified to learn that a large number of children and others have lost their lives or were injured during the last few hours," his spokesperson said.
The Vatican lamented the "astonishing ferocity" with which the hostage crisis ended.
Messages of condolences also came in from Greece, Israel, Egypt and Portugal among other countries.
British foreign secretary Jack Straw, asked about the Russian hostage crisis as he went into the talks, expressed "complete solidarity with President Putin and the Russian government as well as profound sympathy and concern for those poor children and their teachers and their parents are relatives and friends".
- AFP
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