Russian school terror

Gunmen, some wearing suicide-bomb belts, today seized a Russian school, taking up to 200 pupils hostage and killing eight people, including one child.

The gang demanded the release of jailed comrades and threatened to kill 50 children for every one of their number killed by security forces surrounding the school, according to government officials.

In a carefully planned attack which bore the hallmarks of Chechen terrorism, about 25 male and female attackers drove up to the school in a covered truck.

Gunfire broke out as they herded the children inside the school. Among the dead were one of the gunmen and the father of one of the pupils who had tried to resist the raiders. Three teachers and two police officers were among nine people injured.

A government source said: "The attackers are not allowing anyone to collect the bodies. They open fire when anyone tries to approach them."

Estimates of the numbers of hostages varied between 120 and 400. As well as the pupils and their teachers, many parents who had been taking their children to school were seized.

Television images showed the school surrounded by tanks and armoured cars and witnesses told of hearing gunfire and several explosions throughout the afternoon. "Every gunshot I hear is like a shot into my heart," said one woman whose child was among the hostages.

At least 50 children managed to flee the building after hiding in the school's boiler room. At one point a girl aged about seven dressed in a floral print dress emerged followed by a woman.

There were conflicting reports that the hostage-takers may have released other children.

Russian President Vladimir Putin cut short his holiday and returned to Moscow. Parents of the seized children recorded a video appeal asking him to meet the terrorists' demands.

The hostage-takers refused to talk to a local Muslim leader, demanding to talk to a top government official instead. The attack took place in Beslan, about 10 miles north of Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, a republic that borders warring Chechnya.

The crisis follows a bloody day in the Chechen conflict during which a woman suicide bomber killed 10 people and injured more than 50 outside a busy Moscow underground station.

Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov said: "In essence, war has been declared on us, where the enemy is unseen and there is no front."

Prime Minister Tony Blair today condemned the siege and the attacks as "wicked acts".