Putin shuts crisis region borders

The three-day siege ended in a bloodbath on Friday

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the closure of North Ossetia's borders after the school hostage crisis there ended with at least 250 deaths.

Mr Putin, who made an unexpected late night visit to Beslan to talk to survivors, said the hostage takers had sought to ignite ethnic hatred.

Many children are among the dead at the school, which troops stormed after explosions and gunfire inside.

A hunt is on for three gunmen thought to have escaped in Friday's fighting.

"All of Russia grieves with you," Mr Putin said in Beslan after touching down at about 0300 local time (2300GMT Friday).

He said Russian security forces had also suffered heavy losses in the fighting at the school, which was seized by militants on Wednesday as pupils, parents and staff were celebrating the start of the new academic year.

The heavily armed attackers had demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from the neighbouring region of Chechnya.

Unplanned operation

More than 1,000 children and parents are reported to have been inside Beslan's No 1 school when the hostage-takers seized the building.

On Friday morning, negotiations between the authorities and the hostage-takers were under way and it seemed the crisis might be controlled.

1 - At 0850GMT a vehicle from the emergencies ministry is sent in to retrieve the bodies of those killed at the start of the siege. 2 - A series of blasts rock the gym, bringing the roof down. 3 - Hostages start running. The attackers fire at them to try to block their escape, prompting the troops outside to shoot back. See how it happened

The violence began as medical workers drove into the school complex on a pre-arranged mission to collect the bodies of those who had been killed when the school was first seized.

Two explosions, which reports suggest came from inside the heavily mined school, seem to have prompted hostage-takers to begin shooting indiscriminately.

Hostages panicked and tried to flee, while Russian special forces stormed the school in what they later said was an unplanned operation.

More than 700 people were injured. The health ministry of North Ossetia told Interfax news agency that by the early hours of Saturday morning local time, 531 people remained in the local hospital - half of them children.

Interfax reports that two cargo planes carrying medical personnel and equipment have now arrived in the region from Moscow.

Specialist hospitals in Moscow are reportedly on stand-by to receive critically ill victims.

If the toddlers started to cry, the fighters would fire blanks in the air Eyewitness: Hostage's terror

Many adults and children remain unaccounted for, and some relatives of hostages are still at the scene.

Local officials said 10 Arabs were among 27 hostage-takers killed. A further three were arrested, they added.

'Courage'

In his first public comments since the disaster, Mr Putin promised victims would receive help with their treatment and rehabilitation.

He said special forces troops had "showed incredible courage" and "sustained heavy losses".

Mr Putin insisted that the use of force by the military had not been planned.

Click below for a detailed map of Beslan

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"The situation developed very rapidly and unexpectedly," he said.

US President George W Bush has described the events as "another grim reminder" of terrorism.

"We stand with the people of Russia, we send them our thoughts and prayers in this terrible situation," he said.

Many Arab governments have expressed revulsion at the bloodshed.

European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels offered their condolences, but said the EU would ask Russia to explain how such a tragedy could have been allowed to happen.

BBC world affairs correspondent William Horsley says the EU statement implies concern not only about the behaviour of Russian security forces at the siege, but also about Moscow's reliance on harsh military force in Chechnya.

Last week, 89 people died when two aircraft were destroyed in what the authorities say were suicide bomb attacks by Chechen militants.

A few days later, a female suicide bomber blew herself up near a Moscow metro station, killing 10.

And several people died in raids by Chechen separatists on the regional capital, Grozny, before last Sunday's presidential elections in the troubled region.