Dramatic images of life inside the gym during the hostage-taking at middle school one in Beslan were shown on Tuesday night by the Russian television station NTV for the first time.
The images show a room packed with about 1 000 hostages, including men, women and children. Barely a square metre of the gym appears to be empty and the hostages are seen fanning themselves in the heat.
The camera begins to close up on the face of a militant, his head covered by a balaclava. He grabs an AK47 and stands it on its butt end. His fellow gunmen all wear hoods.
The film shows the wires, explosives and placing of the mines. Twin wires that extend between two basketball hoops appear to carry explosive charges. The footage shows a female suicide bomber, her face also covered, apparently speaking on a mobile phone.
The footage’s chronology is uncertain: it begins with the centre of the gym empty of children, and then focuses on grandmothers gripping the backs of their heads. It shows a gunman with his foot poised on a pedal apparently wired to detonate the explosives.
The floor appears to be wet as the tape progresses, and bloodstains can be seen. The film was shot by the gunmen themselves, perhaps using the camera of a local TV cameraman who had been a casualty in the early hours of the siege.
At least 335 people, around half of them children, died when Russian troops stormed the school. – Guardian Unlimited Â