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Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Video shows first hours of school siege
A hostage filmed by captors in the Beslan school. (NTV)
Russia's NTV television aired a tape it said was made by the Beslan hostage takers showing what seemed to be the first hours of the three day school crisis that ended in the deaths of more than 335 civilians and 31 hostage takers.
The 87 second tape showed hundreds of people sitting on the floor side by side while masked gunmen wired the gym with explosives.
NTV television did not explain how it received the footage.
There were pools of blood coming from the crowds of people and a streak of blood running across the centre of the gym as if a bleeding body had been dragged along the floor.
Wires ran across the centre of the floor of the gym and also between the two basketball hoops on opposite sides of the gym.
The gym hoops were stuffed with bombs on both sides and several other explosives were hanging on the wire.
The footage showed one masked man placing his foot over a book on the ground that apparently held a detonator. Nearby lay a rocket propelled grenade launcher.
Several of the gunmen, their heads covered in camouflaged masks and wearing black t-shirts and pants, relaxed on a couch while the others were wiring the building.
"Do not bring in the children here yet," one man was heard yelling in accented Russian as another continued to connect the wires.
Several hundred people appeared to be sitting quietly on the ground. Some had already taken off their tops and others were fanning themselves with books.
The tape also showed a female suicide bomber completely draped in black. They held pistols and wore suicide belts.
One shot showed a wall that appeared to be splattered in blood and another from the window showed a neighbouring building on fire.
AFP
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Video taken from inside the Beslan siege.
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# ANTENNA SHARON | 10:48:00 am |
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