Russia buries first hostage drama dead as toll climbs
BESLAN, Russia : Mothers with tears flowing down their faces and men trying hard to hide their emotions buried their children and relatives as the death toll from Russia's worst ever hostage crisis climbed towards 400.
Dozens of well-wishers laid red carnations and plastic bottles of water at the wreckage of School Number One, its charred remains a haunting memory to a three-day standoff that ended with some of the most violent scenes in modern Russian history.
The water bottles were a stark symbol of how the children were left without water or food by captors who were demanding independence for separatist Chechnya.
"Why? What for? What for?" wept one woman over one of two coffins set under a blue tarp in a courtyard in this town of 40,000, where seemingly everyone knew someone who was affected by the attacks.
Under overcast skies, the men stood silently on the sidelines according to local tradition and prepared huge pots over a wood fire for the solemn post-burial meal.
The three-day hostage drama ended in nightmarish scenes described by the press as the "worst possible scenario", with half-naked, bloodied children fleeing from the school and the mutilated bodies of the dead rushed out on stretchers.
Responding to the international anger and horror at the carnage, Putin has said the special forces who had been massed outside the school since the start of the crisis had not intended to storm the building. But events had "unfolded very rapidly and unexpectedly."
The assault was triggered by a series of unexplained explosions, during which the gym roof collapsed on the hostages below, killing and maiming scores of people.
Security forces alleged the attack had been meticulously planned days before pupils returned to school Wednesday after the summer break.
