Terrorists seize school in Russia

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BESLAN, Russia -- Armed militants with explosives strapped to their bodies stormed a Russian school in a region bordering Chechnya yesterday, corralling hundreds of hostages -- many of them children -- into a gymnasium and threatening to blow up the building if surrounding Russian troops attacked. At least two persons were killed, including a parent.

Camouflage-clad special forces carrying assault rifles encircled Middle School No. 1 in the North Ossetian town of Beslan. Earlier, a little girl in a flowered dress fled the school holding a soldier's hand; officials said about a dozen other people managed to escape by hiding in a boiler room.

Valery Andreyev, federal security chief for North Ossetia, estimated there might be 120 to 300 hostages. Other reports said there were as many as 400.

A militant sniper took a position on the top floor of the three-story school, and hours into the standoff Russian security officials used a phone number they were given and began negotiations with the hostage-takers.

The armed group is believed to be linked to Chechen rebels suspected in a string of deadly attacks coinciding with Sunday's presidential election in the war-ravaged republic.

More than 1,000 people, including many distraught parents, crowded outside police cordons demanding information and accusing the government of failing to protect their children.

The hostage-taking came less than 24 hours after a suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway station that killed at least nine persons, and just over a week after near-simultaneous explosions blamed on terrorism caused two Russian planes to crash, killing all on board.

The recent bloodshed is a blow to President Vladimir Putin, who pledged five years ago to crush Chechnya's rebels but instead has seen the insurgents increasingly strike civilian targets.

"In essence, war has been declared on us, where the enemy is unseen and there is no front," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters before the hostage-taking.

Mr. Putin for the second time in a week interrupted his working holiday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi and returned to Moscow to deal with the unfolding crisis.