More evidence from schoolchildren

The case of Nurpashi Kulayev continued to be heard in North Ossetia's Supreme Court today. More schoolchildren gave evidence in the courthouse.

The gunmen put forward their demands at once and they were very angry that they were not fulfilled and that no one contacted them, according to Marik Kalchakeyev, 14. The gunmen then ceased to give water and allowed people to go to the toilet once and according to a timetable.

"But there was little water. Everyone became so thirsty and we already mixed our urine with water and gave the kids..." in saying so, the 14-year-old boy was no longer able to restrain himself and cried.

When he took his medicine and regained control, Marik answered the prosecutor's question about what weapons he had seen. "Everyone had submachine guns, handguns, a sniper rifle, cold steel, Mukha ("Fly," a grenade launcher - ed.)," enumerated the boy.

The first hostage, a man, to be killed was killed in the presence of Alan Kochiyev, 13. He was shot in the back of his head while trying to calm down the people. His sons brought the man out of the gymnasium. Alan also said that he had seen gunmen greet each other when he had been driven into the school.

Later, Mr Kulayev himself said the group of arriving gunmen had not even approached the school when it had been under full control," Caucasian Knot's correspondent reports.

"Of course, we hoped that they would save us. We hoped for Dzasokhov, for Putin, for Roshal. And maybe for Ziazikov," Alan Kochiyev answered a question of victims from the courthouse.

Tamerlan Toguzov who had been taken hostage together with his mum told how he had been the first to see Colonel (Ruslan Khuchbarov, the terrorists' leader - ed.) running during the school seizure. He had a beard, but no mask. Tamerlan and other hostages managed to hide in the manual labour classroom. Soon, Colonel came in there. He said, "We have not come here to kill, we have come to put an end to the war," and he drove everyone to the gymnasium. Tamerlan thinks there were more gunmen because very many of them were standing in the corridors and there was one or two in every classroom.

"I saw a blast occur back on 1 September. Some of the gunmen began to shout: your guys have launched an onslaught. When the smoke had cleared away, they understood that the suicide bomber women had exploded and an Ossetian man and one gunman with them. On the first day they gave us a pack of dates and we distributed them by one. On the third day, we started to rummage in the bags piled up in the corner, looking for medicines, bubble gum. We even found a bottle of vodka somewhere and drank it.

Irina Dzgoyev, 17, told that she had heard gunmen tell hostages on the first night, "You are killing yourself, it was so stupid of you to elect him as president."

"Taking away bags from hostages, the terrorists took money out of them and said, 'See, we don't even need your money. But you just show your guys 50 roubles and you can go anywhere.' I asked the terrorist how long they were going keep us there and he answered they would keep us not longer than one week," Interfax quotes Irina as saying.

Tamar Beroyev, a victim who had been taken hostage together with her grandson, asked Mr Kulayev who would make up to Beslan for so many children. The defendant answered, "Everyone knows that the gunmen did not blow up the gymnasium. You'd better ask the one who gave the order to attack such a gymnasium, so many people there. When the man on the button fell down, an explosion came about and the onslaught began. It didn't even take five minutes. I went out to the corridor at the moment and saw Colonel crying, 'A sniper has taken off the button man, there will be an onslaught, take up your positions.'"

"So what position did you take up?" prosecutor Aslan Cherchesov asked Mr Kulayev.

"I didn't. If I had taken up any position, I would not be sitting here. Colonel was crying into his phone, 'What have you done, many people will die here, but we will not give in to you all the same.' He was crying in Russian," Mr Kulayev said as quoted by Caucasian Knot's correspondent.

Murat Katsanov lost his daughter. Together with other militiamen he was involved in rescuing the hostages on 3 September. He said that he did not understand why firemen had been awarded after Beslan. On the contrary, emphasised Mr Katsanov, there would be many more victims but for the local militia.

"The firemen came to extinguish the fire in an hour or two. But they ran out of water as soon as in five minutes. I was there and I saw that myself. They wanted to get the second fire engine over there, but the entire gymnasium was already blazing, everything was on fire, it was impossible to come in there. When the hose was dragged on, our guys were holding the joints so that water didn't spill. How old were those hoses? I don't understand what those firemen received awards from the president for," Mr Katsanov said.

• Pupils give evidence