Beslan schools reopen after carnage

Only one-fourth of the total 10,000 students returned to their classrooms as the schools reopened on Wednesday in in the southern Russian town of Beslan, where a bloody hostage crisis earlier this month left over 330 people, including 156 children, dead.

Immediately after the seizure of Beslan's school number one by a group of militants on September 1, who took over 1300 people as hostages, the authorities closed all schools indefinitely.

All the school buildings were thoroughly checked by police and security services with the help of sniffer dogs prior to their reopening. Russian TV channels showed armed police guards manning the school gates.

However, many parents have refused to send their children back to school saying that security steps were inadequate, NTV reported.

The authorities are considering the formation of voluntary protection groups, which would include parents possessing licensed firearms.

A top investigation official today said the commission of inquiry into the causes of Beslan school siege and its bloody end after 52 hours on September 3 would submit its results within 90 days.

"The investigation of Beslan tragedy is very complex from the point of its volume, as well as its ... consequences," chief investigator Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov was quoted as saying by state-run Rossia TV.

"Human beings simply could not have done it. This further complicates the work of investigator," Kolesnikov said.

In all 1356 people, including children, their parents and teachers, were locked up in the stuffy school gym by 32 militants without food and water. Many had to drink their own urine to quench the thirst.

Many fathers of the children who had come with them at the function of reopening of schools after summer vacations were shot dead by the terrorists at the beginning of siege on September 1. Fifty-two hours later 338 people, including 156 children, had died in the bloodbath after chaotic end of the siege.

Kolesnikov declared that role of each and every official, however high rank he may hold, would be minutely studied before, during and at the end of the tragedy by a 'hand-picked team' of experts from all over the country.