Prosecution disproves victims' assumptions

"On 7, 8 and 10 September, the investigation group interrogated Susanna Dudiyev, Chairwoman of the Beslan Mothers Public Committee, who had asked the investigation around 50 questions on behalf of the victims," Mr Kolesnikov, Deputy Prosecutor General, said.

Ms Dudiyev said that many Beslan residents had seen strange people near the school in August. They had played cards on the porch of the school and carried some items into the school; the school headmaster had talked to them and treated them to some sweets. However, it became known that several lawn mowers had been allocated at the request of the headmaster, Lydia Tsaliyev. It was these people that Beslan residents had called strangers and whom they had thought to be accomplices of the terrorists according to Mr Kolesnikov, says RIA Novosti. This means that there are no reasons to suspect Ms Tsaliyev of being involved or negligent, Mr Kolesnikov remarked.

Ms Dudiyev had also demanded establishing who exactly had carried out repairs in the school. Mr Kolesnikov said the repairs had been organised by Oleg Gabuyev, Beslan head of administration, and carried out by some of the teachers and their relatives, NEWSru.com reports.

The investigation group of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office in the presence of women from the Beslan Mothers Committee also conducted an experiment and proved that a GAZ-66 truck could admit 32 terrorists with a complete arsenal. Mr Kolesnikov said that the women had agreed with that as a result of the experiment, although they had previously maintained that some weapons had been delivered to the school before the terrorist act.

"The investigation group also established that the terrorist who had stood on the detonator button could not have been destroyed from the outside," added Mr Kolesnikov indicating that some former hostages had thought otherwise.

Ms Zarema Digurev gave evidence saying that once the people had been driven into the gymnasium, the gunmen had made senior pupils break out the upper windows there. When they had done so, the gunmen had made them cover the last window with rags, so that a sniper from the street would not been able to shoot any one of the terrorists in the gymnasium, Interfax says.

• Weapons confirmed to have been in school