Three days in Beslan -- by Nick Paton-Walsh

[HuckleB]

http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,1302964,00.html

"At first it seemed like someone had made an embarrassing mistake. The presidential aide to the North Caucuses, Vladimir Yakovlev, said on Russian news wires that an entire school had been kidnapped. This was so hard to believe that it took a while before the rush to head south.

Beslan airport was promptly closed, and we opted to concentrate on using a local stringer and a proper package for Thursday's paper. The Times and Independent headed straight for Beslan and got there at about 11pm, or 8pm London time. I landed about 14 hours later at the same Mineralniye Vodi airport, two hours north of Beslan.

At the airport, a gruff policeman dragged me into a cramped office where they made it clear they were looking for a German reporter and al-Jazeera. They let us go after photocopying our documents. Two hours later, we crossed into Northern Ossetia easily. Others were less lucky - Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter known for her bold coverage of Chechnya, and a Georgian TV crew saying they were drugged, presumably by the authorities.

But once we were in Beslan, federal control evaporated.

..."