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 ...
Terrorists who escaped are hold-up in a house (with some hostages). Military/police are engaging them. Battle is going.
terrs trying to fight way out of city
Not sure where the city is.
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Russia - Anadyr * Sat 12:28 AM Russia - Omsk * Fri 6:28 PM
Russia - Chelyabinsk * Fri 5:28 PM Russia - Orenburg * Fri 5:28 PM
Russia - Irkutsk * Fri 8:28 PM Russia - Penza * Fri 3:28 PM
Russia - Izhevsk * Fri 4:28 PM Russia - Perm * Fri 5:28 PM
Russia - Kaliningrad * Fri 2:28 PM Russia - Rostov * Fri 3:28 PM
Russia - Kamchatka * Sat 12:28 AM Russia - Saint-Peterburg * Fri 3:28 PM
Russia - Kazan * Fri 3:28 PM Russia - Samara * Fri 4:28 PM
Russia - Khabarovsk * Fri 10:28 PM Russia - Saratov * Fri 3:28 PM
Russia - Krasnodar * Fri 3:28 PM Russia - Tol'yatti * Fri 4:28 PM
Russia - Krasnoyarsk * Fri 7:28 PM Russia - Ufa * Fri 5:28 PM
Russia - Magadan * Fri 11:28 PM Russia - Ul'yanovsk * Fri 3:28 PM
Russia - Moscow * Fri 3:28 PM Russia - Vladivostok * Fri 10:28 PM
Russia - Murmansk * Fri 3:28 PM Russia - Volgograd * Fri 3:28 PM
Russia - Norilsk * Fri 7:28 PM Russia - Voronezh * Fri 3:28 PM
Russia - Novgorod * Fri 3:28 PM Russia - Yaroslavl * Fri 3:28 PM
Russia - Novokuznetsk * Fri 7:28 PM Russia - Yekaterinburg * Fri 5:28 PM
Russia - Novosibirsk * Fri 6:28 PM
Not sure, but Moscow is 3:30 pm right now.
Excellent graphic of the school, much appreicated.
From your finger tips to God's eye's that he is with them though the rest of this horrific nightmare.
The school is School Number 1 in the city of Beslan, North Ossetia, a Republic in the Caucasus which borders on Chechnya itself.
Exactly, I am shocked they even allowed us to be there, knowing that the world is going to be critcal of every action they do from today forward.
Honestly, could you even imagine if it were a situation like 9/11. Lets just pray it never EVER occurs again, but the Russians need to get on the ball and learn and plan.
"Moscow is 3:30 pm right now."
Thanks.
That might the situation that breaks the camels back. If they have been so ill equipted to rescue them, how will they do trying to find all the charges left to blow up the building.
As I watched thinking any minute the building will go boom but nobody seemed shocked.
8 hr ahead of EST
Thanks.
Been watching CNN and the word has come up by discussing the 2 downed planes, why?
Even FoxNews is referring to them as 'militants'.
America? I said it before, remember the LE at Columbine who stood around picking their noses while students and teachers were begging for them to come rescue them? That one kid finally had to fall out a window and the male teacher died because of inaction. Sorry, but even in America, if you're in a crisis situation be prepared that you're on your own.
It is mighty sad that we talk like this is the norm. I guess 9/11 has had a greater impact on myself then I realized.
I had posted earlier, that I would have the child point at the savage perhaps 2, read him his acts of murder, then take him to the town square, soccer field and execute. This is just unacceptable behavior and if we continue to twiddle our fingers it only makes it a day longer.
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