'Hostage-taker' interviewed on TV

The man seemed frightened, and at times was incoherent

A man said to have been a hostage-taker in the bloody school siege in the southern Russian town of Beslan has been shown on state television.

His hands bound, the frightened-looking man was shown being led by two hooded commandos into a room, where he was interviewed for a short time.

He said he had not wanted to die in the siege, and that as a father, he had felt pity for the child hostages.

Two days of national mourning have now begun, a day after the first funerals.

Flags are flying at half-mast, and all television entertainment programmes have been cancelled.

Authorities say at least 335 people died in the siege in the North Ossetia region, which ended in carnage on Friday, but correspondents say unofficial figures suggest the real number could be closer to 400.

'Triumphalist'

Claims about the number and fate of the hostage-takers, who were demanding Chechen independence, have been vague and contradictory.

I swear by Allah I did not shoot, I swear I did not shoot Alleged hostage-taker

At one point the authorities said that all of the hostage-takers, about 30 in all, had been killed.

The man who appeared on state television was said to have had shaved off his beard in order to try to escape with fleeing hostages when the siege collapsed.

Asked by a state TV reporter whether he felt sorry for the child hostages, the man replied: "I swear by Allah, I did feel sorry for them. I have got children too."

Alina Khubetsova, 11, was buried with her dolls

Asked whether he fired his weapon, he said: "I swear by Allah I did not shoot, I swear I did not shoot."

But later, pressed by his interviewer, he became less coherent before saying: "In general, I did not want to die anywhere. I do not want to die anywhere."

The man's accent suggests he is from the region and not a foreigner, observers say.

Correspondents say the report's tone was highly triumphalist and ended with images of the corpses of dead hostage-takers crawling with flies.

Missing

In Beslan, funerals began on Sunday with the burial of 24 of the siege victims in a field on the edge of town.

As the burials went ahead, 150 more graves were being dug and many more were being marked out.

But many families still do not know what has happened to their children. Almost 200 people are still officially missing.

1 - At 0850 GMT 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. How the siege ended

Some may be unidentified in hospital - too young or too traumatised to give their names.

The bodies of others are in the morgues - so charred or mutilated as to be unrecognisable.

The Russian Red Cross has appealed for international assistance to provide mostly heavy medical equipment to the overstretched local hospitals trying to treat the injured, who now number nearly 400.

Seventeen of the most seriously injured, including 11 children, were transferred to hospitals in Moscow on Sunday.

Children at the school had been celebrating the start of the new school year with parents and staff on Wednesday morning when the heavily-armed gang took them hostage.

The crisis ended in massive bloodshed after bombs rigged up by the hostage-takers went off inside the building, and Russian troops moved in.

Russian authorities are investigating claims that adults were told to hand hostage-takers weapons concealed under the school's floorboards.

Correspondents say there are indications the weapons could have been hidden weeks before - an indication of how well-planned the operation was, and also how little hindered the perpetrators.