Rusia de duelo por las víctimas del sitio

Russia is holding two days of national mourning for more than 330 people killed in the hostage-taking at a school in the southern town of Beslan. Flags are at half-mast and TV entertainment programmes have been cancelled. The first funerals were held yesterday; about 100 more are due today.

This is the first of two days of national mourning, but here in Beslan it's a day of very personal pain. More than 100 victims of the school siege will be laid to rest. With so many dead - including so many children - it feels like the heart has been ripped from this small town.

Across Beslan this morning the sound of wailing echoed from the windows of apartment blocks; there isn't a family here which hasn't been touched by this tragedy. And at what used to be School Number One but is now a bombed-out shell, two mothers, whose children had died here, laid flowers, then they stood in silence, staring at the rubble.

Three days after the end of the siege, some in Beslan are still searching for relatives - more than 190 people are unaccounted for.

Steve Rosenberg, BBC News, Beslan

national mourning
duelo nacional

siege
sitio, asedio

the heart has been ripped
el corazón ha sido desgarrado

wailing
llanto, gemido, lamento

confiscating
confiscando

touched by
tocada, afectada

a bombed-out shell
una estructura destruida por explosiones

rubble
escombros, ruinas

unaccounted for
desaparecidos/desaparecidas