Ossetian soldiers take position near the

BESLAN, RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Ossetian soldiers take position near the school where a group of gunmen, wearing belts laden with explosives, are holding hostage some 240 people hostage in the northern Ossetian village of Beslan, some 30 kms outside Vladikavkaz, 01 September 2004. Some 132 children were among the hostages seized at the Beslan school. The crisis unit said the figure had been compiled after parents and relations helped specify the numbers of pupils who went into the school on the first day of the academic year early 01 September. AFP PHOTO / DMITRY AZAROV / KOMMERSANT *RUSSIA OUT* (Photo credit should read DMITRY AZAROV/AFP via Getty Images)