Russians seek answers after siege

By Steven Eke
BBC correspondent in Moscow

Muscovites prayed for the victims of the school siege

In Moscow the horror of the events in Beslan is still being digested by a population that has also experienced suicide attacks this year.

Children occupy a special place in Russian life and there is particular revulsion that they were specifically targeted.

Russian analysts have suggested only religious fanaticism can explain the brutality of Beslan.

That ties in with the official conviction here that Islamic extremism, and not the Chechen territorial dispute, is at the root of the unprecedented violence.

Revenge warning

Information from the judicial authorities has been patchy, but it suggests that there were more than 30 hostage-takers in total, including an estimated nine Arabs and at least one African.

Officials say they hope to identify the masterminds behind the operation quickly.

Their immediate suspicion has fallen on Shamil Basayev, one of the top Chechen field commanders still at large and a man known to have links with radical Islamist organisations.

Politicians in Moscow have welcomed President Vladimir Putin's promise of tougher security measures.

Meanwhile a top representative of Moscow's Chechen community described the hostage-takers as non-humans, with neither faith nor nationality, and warned that there is now a real possibility of violent revenge attacks against ethnic minorities.