100 bodies lie in gym

Authorities appear to have control of the school.
BESLAN, Russia (AP) -- The Interfax news agency reports that the bodies of more than 100 hostages have been found in the school gym in southern Russia.
Commandos stormed a school in southern Russia today and battled separatist rebels holding hundreds of hostages, as crying children, some naked and covered in blood, fled through explosions and gunfire.
The extent of the casualties was not immediately determined.
A cameraman for the British network ITN also reported seeing around 100 bodies in the gymnasium where the hostages -- reportedly up to 1,500 of them, mostly women and children -- were held for nearly three days.
Authorities in control
Russian authorities appeared to have taken control of the school, and all the hostages were evacuated from the gymnasium. But gunfire rang out through the town for hours afterward, before ending in the afternoon.
About a dozen hostage-takers escaped, with the Interfax new agency reporting that they split into three groups to blend in with the hostages and took refuge in a home nearby. Tank fire was heard from the area of the house, Interfax said.
Alexander Dzasokhov -- the president of North Ossetia, where the school is located -- said the militants had demanded independence for the nearby war-torn region of Chechnya.
Huge columns of smoke billowed from the school, where windows were shattered, part of roof was gone and another part was charred. The scene around the school was chaotic, with people running through the streets, the wounded carried off on stretchers.
An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances speeding by, the windows streaked with blood. Four armed men in civilian clothes ran by, shouting, "A militant ran this way."
Soldiers and men in civilian clothes carried children to a temporary hospital set up behind an armored personnel carrier.
One child had a bandage on her head; others had bandaged limbs. Some women, newly freed from the school, fainted.
The children drank eagerly from bottles of water given to them once they reached safety. Many of the children were only partly clothed because of the stifling heat in the gymnasium where they had been held since the militants took the building Wednesday. The hostage-takers had refused to let food or water into the school throughout the standoff.
Associated Press Television News footage showed the bodies of four children and a woman, and the ITAR-Tass news agency reported at least seven people killed, including five militants.
Many wounded
Regional emergency officials said 250 hostages were wounded, including 180 children. The head of a children's hospital in the regional capital of Vladikavkaz said five of the 68 wounded children brought there were in grave condition. Interfax reported more than 400 wounded, including hostages and local residents.
The chaos erupted on the third day of the hostage standoff in Beslan.
It began after militants had agreed to let Russia retrieve the bodies of people killed early in the raid. Explosions went off as the emergency personnel went to get the bodies at around 1 p.m., and hostages took the noise as a signal to flee, officials said.
Militants opened fire on fleeing hostages, and security forces returned fire. Once the hostage-takers tried to flee, commandos moved in.
The hostage takers' identities were murky. Lev Dzugayev, a North Ossetian official, said the attackers might be from Chechnya or Ingushetia.
Law enforcement sources in North Ossetia and Ingushetia, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attackers were believed to include Chechens, Ingush, Russians and a North Ossetian suspected of participating in the Ingushetia violence.
Insurgents fought an earlier war for Chechen independence, a conflict that ended in stalemate. In the years since, the rebels and their sympathizers have increasingly taken to assaults and attacks outside the tiny republic.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.