Russian troops stormed the school where Islamic terrorists were holding hundreds of children hostage, ending the siege with many casualties: Dozens Killed as Shootout Ends Russian School Siege.

BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - Dozens were killed when Russian troops stormed a school Friday in a chaotic battle to free hundreds of parents, teachers and children who had been held hostage for 53 hours by Chechen separatists.

Naked children ran for safety, screaming amid machinegun fire and explosions while attack helicopters clattered overhead.

Julian Manyon, a reporter for Britain’s ITV television news, said his cameraman had seen up to 100 bodies in the gymnasium of the school in Beslan, in the North Ossetia region adjoining Chechnya, after the hostage-takers left:

“Our cameraman … told me that in his estimation there are as many as 100 dead bodies, I am afraid, lying on the smoldering floor of the gymnasium where we know that a large number of the hostages were being held.”