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 ...
The Russian troops are now inside the building. Ambulances taking some of the wounded away.
Apparently a few of them grabbed some adult men and blew themselves up inside the school on the first day or so.
Ok, the dingbat on CNN is saying the kids couldn't go to the bathroom so that's why the kids were undressed - not to go around in soiled clothes.
They are reporting that Russian troops are in the building now.
These thugs are sick. They deserve no justice NO JUSTICE at all. Who the hell do they think they are to reduce human life, a childs life to nothing.
Just shoot all the thugs and hope nobody gets hit in the crossfire.
There are terror groups watching and clapping .. not good
The Russian troops have a nice way of handling terrorists, as I recall from the theatre hostage crisis.
It is 90 degrees and very humid - no food or water
Due to hurricane I don't have cable where I am. My wild guess is this NOT a final resolution. This hostage taking will resume. Both sides will back off.
I have long believed the chechens to be the most sick and disgusting of all the islamic radicals.
They deserve justice.
Total justice.
Thank you for adding an update article. It has been going on in real time on FOX CNN and MSNBC.
It is just tragic.
It doesn't appear to me at this moment (and more might be going on behind the scenes that I'm not aware of) that these forces are as trained in dealing with this type of situation as our forces are.
Supposedly the roof that collapsed was not on the children. Hope they are right.
The only final resolution is to finish off chechnya permanently.
Soldiers in building - good. Hope the terrorists will not blow up more bombs huting the children.
Putin must not allow this to happen again. The war on terror must be won. Bush better back off his "religion of peace" as well.
Not a problem. We cannot have to much information.
Try Budennovsk for a really huge screw-up.
Expel them to Siberia. Mohammedans crave living miserably so they can pray to phony Allah about it. This is their psyche.
You are correct, and I regret using such colorful language but my heart aches for what I am watching right now.
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