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 ...
CNN reports schools roof has collapsed.
School roof has collapsed. Three story building, children on bottom floor. Mined the walls of the gym where children were held.
Why are people just walking around where there is gun fire?
Very, very sad.
Thanks Dave for that update from FOX. Steady rain of gunfire.
CNN reporter said folks near him were hit.
Many injured children running out of the school now.
Thanks for the coverage. Looks to me like these Islamo-demons will end up killing a few hundred. My heart goes out to Russians but they must take this as a warning and get right on Islam and stop supplying Iran with nule capability,
Probably trying to get to their children as soon as they get a chance. They haven't slept for HOURS.
Roof caved in on school. 30 women and children running from school.
Explosion from school could have been the collapse of the school from where bombs were placed in walls of school.
All I've got is MSNBC and they are talking about Koby right now.
They still do not know how many children (hostages)are in the building.
CNN reporter asking the guy on the ground why the Russian police aren't holding the reporters back.
Seems like chaos to me.
RECAP on CNN
This is horrible
chaos is right.
many people making it though.
They are moving children out of the the building showing the bodies of the children on the stretchers.
These kids are almost naked
Russian special forces took positions outside of school. School roof has collapsed. Russian cargo helicopters above.
Kids are running from school. Poor things look exhausted. Have had no food or water in HOURS.
Fox News has some good film of the people running out. One woman just collapsed.
Many of the children are almost NAKED as they run from the building !!!!
This is just awful, a no win situation!!
cnn showing dozens of children running out in their underclothes and running to water stations
Hard to figure .. alomst like Columbine BUT they did it differently to make sure the hostage takers did not leave with the hostages, this may not be good.
Kids do not have clothes on, at least some of them.
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