BBC reports from the scene

BBC correspondents Damian Grammaticas, Jonathan Charles and Sarah Rainsford describe what they have seen on the streets of Beslan since the siege descended into a bloodbath on Friday.

Jonathan Charles (Saturday morning):

"President Putin came to Beslan to show his solidarity with a town which is in deep shock.

He spent 30 minutes touring wards in the public hospital, visiting some of the more than 700 adults and children injured.

The Russian leader confirmed troops hadn't planned to storm the school building when they did, but had been forced to act when events appeared to be spiralling out of control.

It was thought the hostage-takers were beginning to massacre the 1,200 teachers, parents and children they were holding.

President Putin said the Special Forces troops had shown great courage, but had suffered heavy losses in the prolonged exchange of fire with the hostage takers.

Relatives of those who were held hostage have spent the night scouring lists of the dead and injured.

Many still don't know whether their children survived.

Hospitals have been too busy performing emergency surgery on casualties to issue the names of all those who are being treated.

Beslan is beginning to mourn its dead but there's growing anger here that the town has been caught up in Russia's long conflict over the future of Chechnya."

Sarah Rainsford (Friday night):

"The battle is officially over here - but there are still occasional blasts from the direction of the school.

For some tonight, there was enormous relief as they were reunited with their relatives.

But as they look at the body-bags and the injured, many are increasingly angry - at the rebels, at the Russian military and at President Vladimir Putin.

They had been promised this siege would end peacefully. Instead, it is a bloodbath."

Jonathan Charles describes the end of the battle in and around the school:

"It is much calmer, for the first time in four hours I am not wearing my bullet-proof vest and helmet.

We know the fighting has moved further out of town. Some of the hostage-takers got away and are being chased. Occasionally we hear automatic weapons fire and the crump of explosions.

When I was watching this battle unfold, it was hundreds of people exchanging automatic weapons fire. It would have been inevitable that hostages were caught in the crossfire.

We understand an explosion inside the building brought down part of roof, and that would have caused casualties.

Security forces are de-mining the school buildings. They need to be careful as they pick through the buildings to see if there are any more casualties. This is still a very fast-moving situation, very fast changing."

Damian Grammaticas describes seeing the first casualties being brought out:

"There were distressing scenes at the gate of the school compound, where some of the victims of the siege crisis were laid out on the grass.

Five bodies were covered in white sheets, which families lifted up to see if it is was any of their missing relatives.

The bodies included at least one child and several adult women.

Paramedics were bringing badly injured children out of the school - many suffering burns and gunshot wounds.

But there were also scenes of relief and joy - one man in a car holding a young boy close to him, punched the air as he went past, triumphant that he had his child back with him."

Earlier, Jonathan Charles was forced to end one of his broadcasts as heavy automatic gunfire came too close for comfort:

"The authorities appear to have been caught on the back foot by the events on Friday.

Ambulances were starting to arrive at the scene a couple of hours after the initial drama unfolded.

There were no doctors, no ambulances when at least 200 casualties came out and there was no-one to care for them.

I have never seen so many distraught people in one place in all my life.

As soon as the firing started people put their heads in their hands as they did not know what was happening to their sons, daughters or whoever they knew inside.

The situation developed very rapidly."

Sarah Rainsford said there were scenes of chaos as the drama unfolded:

"At about one o'clock local time, we heard two very loud explosions coming from the direction of the school.

We have seen a dozen or more casualties being brought from the scene, children covered in blood, the walking wounded, people being carried by soldiers and by friends and relatives.

They are now being treated in a military hospital close to the scene.

One woman spoke of trip wires and bombs.

She said the gunmen had their feet on switches and were threatening to blow the school up.

'They have the eyes of madmen,' she said

The relatives are still standing around desperate for news. They are saying this is what the authorities promised us would never happen.

There was a promise that nobody would storm the school. Now whoever started this, whoever fired the first shot, the end result is the same."