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Russians weep, bury siege victims

Toll nears 400

AFP, Beslan
Mothers with tears flowing down their faces and men trying hard to hide their emotions buried their children and relatives Sunday as the death toll from Russia's worst ever hostage crisis climbed towards 400.
Dozens of well-wishers laid red carnations and plastic bottles of water at the wreckage of School Number One, its charred remains a haunting memory to a three-day standoff that ended with some of the most violent scenes in modern Russian history.
The water bottles were a stark symbol of how the children were left without water or food by captors who were demanding independence for separatist Chechnya.
"Why? What for? What for?" wept one woman over one of two coffins set under a blue tarp in a courtyard in this town of 40,000, where seemingly everyone knew someone who was affected by the attacks.
Under overcast skies, the men stood silently on the sidelines according to local tradition and prepared huge pots over a wood fire for the solemn post-burial meal.
Some 22 people were expected to be laid to rest Sunday and the Patriarch of Russia's Orthodox church, Alexy II, asked that a mass be held in every church across the country to remember the victims of the siege.
Toll figures continued to swing wildly, with the official toll standing at 338 people, with more than 400 others hospitalised.
But one worker at a main morgue in the region said that nearly 400 bodies have already come in.
"As of yesterday, we have tagged 394," said Vita, a medical worker at the Vladikavkaz morgue.
"Some of the bodies are so mutilated the relatives can't recognize them, so we are taking samples of hair and blood," she said, refusing to give her last name.
Amid a wave of attacks linked to Chechnya that have now killed hundreds in just over a week, President Vladimir Putin -- who rose to power on a law and order ticket -vowed before the nation to toughen up security and admitted to some "weakness" in the past.
Addressing the nation on television a day after the school hostagetaking in southern Russia ended in carnage, Putin admitted failings by law enforcement agencies and said he would act to bolster the country's security.
The interior minister of North Ossetia resigned within hours of Putin's comments.
Putin, who despite tough talk and nearly five years of conflict in Chechnya has failed to rein in separatist rebels or stop a spate of attacks across Russia, faces the most serious challenge of his four-and-a-half-year presidency with the horrific end to the hostage-taking.
Anxious relatives were scouring lists of names, desperately searching for their loved ones still missing after Friday's chaos and bloodshed.
The three-day hostage drama ended in nightmarish scenes described by the press as the "worst possible scenario", with half-naked, bloodied children fleeing from the school and the mutilated bodies of
the dead rushed out on stretchers.