A released hostage (C) holding her baby walks away from the school seized by heavily armed masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya on September 2, 2004. (Photo: Reuters)

A first positive signal appeared on Thursday when 10 women and 16 children were released on the second day of a hostage crisis, in which a group of armed men seized a school in South Russia's North Ossetia Republic, holding around 350 children and adults hostage.

"This is the first positive result " that came about as a result of negotiations led by Ruslan Aushev, former president of the neighboring Ingushetia, said Lev Dzugayev, spokesman for the North Ossetia Republic.

Before the release, the attackers held 354 hostages, including some 130 children.

Early Friday, two loud blasts were heard near the site of the Russian school. Russian news agencies reported that one policeman was injured.

Dzugayev, who made telephone contact with the rebels after the blasts, said the hostage-takers told authorities that they fired grenades because they thought they saw suspicious movement in the area around the school, which is surrounded by Russian forces, Interfax reported.

Dzugayev also reiterated that there would be no attempts to storm the building. "There will be no violent solution to the problem as long as there is the possibility of getting people out through negotiations," he told reporters.

The hostage-taking brought back nightmarish memories of a similar incident at a Moscow theater in 2002, in which 130 spectators died when police stormed the building.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has postponed an official trip to Turkey scheduled for Thursday and Friday, stressed that the safety of the hostages was paramount in resolving the crisis.

"Our main task is to save the life and health of those who have ended up as hostages. All the actions of our forces, who are dealing with freeing the hostages, will be devoted to solving this task," Putin said Thursday in nationally televised comments from the Kremlin.

Valery Andreyev, head of the Federal Security Service in the North Ossetia Republic, said, "There is no question at the moment of opting for force. There will be a lengthy and tense process of negotiation."

Negotiators have resumed efforts early Friday for the release of more people. But hostage-takers still refused to accept water and medicines for the hostages, and had rejected all proposals made by an ad hoc committee for the release of hostages, including the offer of safe passage to Ingushetia and Chechnya and exchange of children hostages for adult ones.

The gunmen also threatened to kill 50 children for every one of their own killed by federal troops and 20 for each wounded.

Leonid Roshal, a well-known pediatrician who contributed to the release of hostages during the deadly 2002 hostage crisis, had established contact with the raiders under their demand.

North Ossetia, located in southern Russia and bordering the rebellious republic of Chechnya, is predominantly Christian but has a small Muslim community.

North Ossetian Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev said the militants may have members of several ethnic groups including Ossetians, Ingushes, Chechens and Russians.

Russia has suffered a series of terrorist attacks over the past week.

Wednesday's hostage crisis came just hours after a suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway, leaving 10 people dead and 37 injured.

Just days before the blast, two Russian passenger planes crashed almost simultaneously minutes after taking off from a Moscow airport, killing all the 90 people aboard. A group called the Islambouli Brigades has claimed responsibility for the twin crashes.

At a special session in New York late Wednesday, the UN Security Council condemned the gunmen "in the strongest terms" and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

According to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, US President George W. Bush called Putin and offered "whatever assistance" he requested to resolve the crisis.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday also called his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, renewing the US offer to help.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Thursday said his government has confidence in the Russian government's handling of the hostage crisis and said he believed there would be no repeat of the 2002 crisis.

Source: Xinhua