BBC Standoff Friday 3 September. As the siege at Beslan's No 1 school enters its third day, Chechen separatists are still holding hundreds of children and adults. The attackers had stormed into the school on Wednesday, forcing everyone into the gym. Contact with the hostage-takers is resumed on Friday morning (0330 GMT). So far they have refused to allow food supplies into the school, which is surrounded by special forces. At about 0850 they agree to let emergency workers into the school to retrieve bodies of dead hostages. The following accounts are based on details released by 2020 GMT on Friday.

Flashpoint Just before 0900 GMT, emergency workers enter the school to recover the bodies of dead hostages, thought to be about 15. Minutes later, explosions and gunfire are heard and, at about 0915, a group of hostages of different ages manages to escape. The order of events is still unclear. But one eyewitness has told Russian media that one of the many bombs stuck with tape around the gym fell and exploded. The roof caved in and hostages started to run. The attackers fired at them as they fled, prompting the troops outside to shoot back.

Troops move in As four Mi-8 combat helicopters hover over the school, special forces storm the buildings. At 1005 GMT, Russian commanders report that their troops are nearly in full command of the building, but the gunfire continues. At 1040, three armoured personnel carriers with troops approach the school. New blasts are heard as commandos blow holes in walls to allow hostages to escape. At around 1200, sappers begin demining the school buildings and grounds. Russian officials later say the decision to storm the school was taken after the attackers started shooting at children.

Those who are not seriously hurt are desperate for water. They are first treated at a field hospital set up nearby. Military and civilian ambulances, as well as civilian cars commandeered by soldiers, are used to take the injured to different hospitals.

Later, dozens of bodies are found in the school gym.

Despite earlier official statements that all the hostages had been freed, it emerges that some children are still being held captive.

Siege ends In the confusion that follows the storming of the school, a group of attackers manages to flee, apparently by mixing in with the hostages. Thirteen of the attackers reportedly head south and take refuge in a nearby house where they are surrounded by special forces. Three others apparently flee to the basement from where they continue to fire at the troops. Late on Friday, officials say 20 of the attackers - at least nine of them Arab - have been killed. Three others have been taken alive, they say. There are contradictory reports as to whether any of them are still on the run.

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By Richard Ayton and Oliver Bullough

BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - Russian troops stormed a school on Friday, blaming Chechen hostage-takers for a bloody battle in which more than 200 people -- dozens of them children -- were killed and hundreds were wounded.

Reuters Photo Reuters Slideshow: Terrorists Take Children Hostage, Troops End Standoff Deadly School Siege Ends (Reuters Video)

Terrified children, some naked and others with bloodied faces, ran screaming for safety after a 53-hour ordeal at the hands of gunmen with bombs strapped to their waists. Machinegun fire rattled out and helicopters clattered overhead.

The military operation against the gunmen, "who put up lengthy resistance in the school is now over," a Russian official overseeing the mission was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency late on Friday night.

Russian troops -- with special forces spearheading the storming -- killed 27 hostage-takers and captured three alive, officials told Interfax.

Burly soldiers grabbed the fleeing children and rushed them to waiting medics. Some had blood streaming from wounds.

"I smashed the window to get out," one boy with a bandaged hand told Russian television. "People were running in all directions ... (The guerrillas) were shooting from the roof."

The children, many stripped to their underwear after two days without food or drink in stiflingly hot and crowded conditions, gulped down bottles of water and waited in a daze for relatives as gunfire crackled round them.

CONFUSION AND CARNAGE

Official details and figures fluctuated amid the confusion and carnage in Beslan in the North Ossetia region bordering troubled Chechnya (news - web sites), where Moscow has faced a decade-old revolt.

"More than 200 people died as a result of shooting by the gunmen or from wounds received as a result of explosions set off by the gunmen," a Health Ministry source in North Ossetia was quoted as saying by Interfax.

Russian media said 860 pupils attended Middle School No.1. Their number may have been swollen to around 1,500 by parents and relatives attending a first-day ceremony traditional in Russian schools.

The Emergencies Ministry said 704 people, including 259 children, were in hospital. Many of the wounded were being treated in mobile hospitals set up by authorities.

Bullet holes riddled the red brick walls of the school and smoke rose from the collapsed roof of the gymnasium.

Six bodies lay covered with white sheets near the school gates, one the almost naked corpse of a girl of around 16.

Russian authorities said they had been forced into an unplanned rescue operation when the hostage-takers opened fire on fleeing children.

Moments before the battle erupted, officials said they had sent a vehicle to fetch the bodies of people killed in Wednesday's seizure of the school.

"No military action was planned. We were planning further talks," said Valery Andreyev, regional head of Russia's FSB security service.

RUSSIA SAYS 10 ARABS KILLED Andreyev said 10 Arabs had been among the gunmen killed, adding fuel to Russia's contention that Chechen rebels are backed by foreign Islamic militants.

Some officials suggested an al Qaeda financing link to the gunmen.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) came to power in 2000 on a promise to restore order in Chechnya after years of violent rebellion and hostage-takings similar to the one in Beslan.

A total of 129 hostages and 41 rebels were killed when Putin sent in troops to overpower Chechen rebels who seized a Moscow theater in 2002. But violence in the region and elsewhere in Russia has raged on.

World leaders sent messages of support and sympathy to Russia, although many have questioned Moscow's human rights record in an often bloody campaign against Chechen rebels seeking independence for their region.

"This is yet another grim reminder of the lengths to which terrorists will go to threaten the civilized world," President Bush (news - web sites) told a rally in West Allis, Wisconsin, where he was campaigning for re-election.

"We stand with the people of Russia."

GUNMEN SPLIT UP

Russian media said the fleeing gunmen split up after escaping from the school.

Alexander Dzasokhov, president of North Ossetia, said the gunmen had demanded an independent Chechnya, the first clear link between them and a decade-long separatist rebellion in the neighboring province.

Attacks linked to Chechen separatists have surged in the past few weeks as Chechnya elected a head for its pro-Moscow administration to replace an assassinated predecessor.

Last week, suicide bombers were blamed for the near-simultaneous crash of two passenger planes in which 90 people died. This week, in central Moscow, a suicide bomber blew herself up, killing nine people.