Posted on 09/03/2004 2:21:29 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
BESLAN, Russia (CNN) -- Hundreds more hostages may be inside a school under siege in southern Russian than first thought, Russian officials have said.
As the crisis entered its third day Friday, a spokesman for the regional government told CNN an earlier estimate of 350 hostages was low.
Two of 26 hostages freed by their captors on Thursday indicated there were 1,000 children, parents and teachers inside the building in Beslan, near the troubled Russian republic of Chechnya.
Relatives waiting outside the school also have said there could be as many as 1,000 hostages, noting that the school has 11 grades with 75-100 students in each grade.
Asked about the discrepancy with the earlier estimate, the regional government spokesman said officials originally accounted only for those children whose parents reported them missing.
But teachers also were in the school when armed attackers seized the building Wednesday morning.
And many of the children -- especially in the lower grades -- were accompanied by their parents and in some cases entire families for a celebration to mark the start of the school year.
"The situation in school very, very dire," CNN's Ryan Chilcote reported from the scene.
"Two of the 26 women and children released yesterday are saying the situation is very bad inside the school's gymnasium where the hostages are being kept.
"At one point the men were separated from the women and children. The men were then brought back into the gymnasium, but there weren't as many of them, and there's no word what happened to the other men."
"There is no food and water. At one point the hostage-takers brought them one cup of water for, as they put it, 1,000 hostages."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Some of these people were diabetics and others with asthma.
Released hostages claim 1000 hostages. Officials first said 300+ but now won't give numbers.
The chechens are experts in hostage taking. Grozny had a human slave market for some years. Basayev has long been considered a military genius. Not so easy to prevent chechen terrorism.
Ah ha, just as we suspected. Terrorists tried to escape. Some used children as shields - the slimes.
If there were up to a 1000 people in that school, that means there are many, many more inside, heaven knows in what shape. Guess we'll find out soon. Hope it's not a disaster in there. Gunfire still going on inside.
The terrorists set off at least two explosions inside the school. The wall came down inside the school. Russian special forces are inside the building but they "don't own it" yet according to Fox News.
The numbers are what I find most perplexing. They have hostages come out and give numbers, differing from official numbers, then they had someone go in take water, all be it one glass, did he not take a look around or where a gaget to take photos?
Just mortified in the heartland.
Reporter just said the Russian troops still don't own the building. Don't have control of it yet.
Never apologize to me about speaking ill of chechens. They are really very difficult to see as human.
Sometime if you like I can tell you some stories about them. This is nothing for their typical behavior, believe me.
17-25 terrorists. Two may have fled.
Bring up the old gulags and make use of them again. LOL.
Two female terrorists supposedly have escaped the building.
As many as 1,000 people were inside. The bathrooms were overflowing, no water or food. Conditions were unbearable.
This is Budennovsk all over again. The worst thing was to think they would re-enact it, but both sides seem to have done just that.
Too quiet right now. Makes me nervous.
Does anyone else find it troubling that they have no clue of the numbers?
FOX now saying 1000-1500 people in school. The numbers keep rising. Hope it's just FOX exaggerating.
Yes.
The rats trying to flee were using children as shields.
This started as the terrorists attempted to flee. What COWARDS!
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