MOSCOW, Sept. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- About 400 people have been taken hostage after a group of armed men seized a school in South Russia's North Ossetia republic on Wednesday morning and the international community strongly denounced this terror act.

    Ismel Shaov, North Ossetian Interior Ministry spokesman, told local media that the gunmen, bearing guns and wearing explosive belts, seized the school in the town of Beslan at around 9:30 a.m.Moscow time (0530 GMT), and had contacted authorities and put forward some demands.

   DEATHS REPORTED

    Nine people, including eight civilians and one militant, have died in the incident, Russian news agencies quoted Russia's crisismanagement center as saying.

    Up to 30 attackers with explosive belts and guns stormed the school as parents were bringing their children to a ceremony marking the start of the new school year.

    Hundreds of children, teachers and parents faced a harrowing night in captivity after being taken hostage by extremists wearingbelts laden with explosives at the school near war-torn Chechnya.

    Itar-Tass said seven people who were wounded when the raid began have died in hospitals, bringing the number of killed civilians up to eight. In addition, at least one civilian and one terrorist were killed in a gunfight with police in the early stages of the seizure.

    The North Ossetian Health Ministry, however, denied the report,saying four people were killed and 10 others wounded.

    Russian snipers and tanks surrounded the school while hundreds of anxious, crying relatives gathered nearby, many getting help from psychiatric counselors and others crying over lists of the 132 kids now identified as being inside.

    A source in the North Ossetian Interior Ministry confirmed that one of the terrorists was killed in the shoot-out and the hostages are being held in the school's gym.

    North Ossetia's interior minister, Kazbek Dzantiev, said the hostage-takers had threatened to kill 50 children for every abductor killed. "For every destroyed rebel, they will kill 50 children, and 20 children for every injured rebel."

    Up to 50 children, who had apparently hidden during the seizure,managed to escape from the school, Itar-Tass said.

    North Ossetia is located in southern Russia, bordering the rebellious republic of Chechnya.

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

    Russia has suffered a series of terrorist attacks over the pastweek.

    Wednesday's crisis came just hours after a suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway left 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.

    In 1995, in the midst of the first Russo-Chechen war, some 200 Chechen rebels stormed a hospital in the Stavropolsky region and seized up to 1,000 people hostage. The standoff lasted for severaldays and ended with Russian forces storming the hospital, leaving more than 100 people dead on all sides.

    TALKS YET UNFORESEEABLE

    The hostage-takers have refused to talk with the leader of the Muslim community in the region, Mufti Ruslan Valgatov, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

    "He is trying to establish a contact with the terrorists," Itar-Tass quoted officials in the city of Beslan as saying.

    But the attackers refused to negotiate with Valgatov and insisted on talks with the president of Russia's North Ossetia republic.

    North Ossetia is predominantly Christian but has a small Muslim community.

    There was conflicting information about the demands of the 17 hostage-takers, with some initial reports saying they sought the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. But there was only brief contact establish by authorities with the attackers.

    Police said the attackers threw a video tape out of the window,demanding the release of all terrorists arrested in the raids in Russia's Ingushetia republic on June 21-22.

    WORLDWIDE CONDEMNATION

    Messages of support rang in to Moscow, with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan saying he was appalled by the attack and US President George W. Bush pledging that "we stand with the Russian people."

    In a statement issued through his spokesman, Annan said he was "appalled" to learn about the incident and condemned "in the strongest terms this criminal act directed against the most vulnerable members of society."

    Annan and Carol Bellamy, executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), both appealed for the immediate and unconditional release of the children.

    The UN Security Council on Wednesday decried the mass hostage-taking and demanded the "immediate and unconditional" release of all hostages.

    The council "condemns in the strongest terms the heinous terrorist act involving the taking of hostages at a secondary school in the town of Beslan," said a statement, adopted at an emergency council meeting requested by Russia.

    The council urged all states to cooperate actively with the Russian authorities in their efforts to find and bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these terrorist acts.

    US President Bush called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday and condemned those behind the hostage-taking.

    "He (Bush) condemned the taking of hostages and other recent terrorist attacks in Russia," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said.

    Bush also "offered his condolences to the victims and to the Russian people. Both leaders stressed their strong commitment to working together to defeat global terrorism," Buchan said.

    France sharply condemned the hostage-taking. "We are also particularly indignant at the hostage-taking in Russia's North Ossetia region threatening children, their parents and their teachers, on the day of return to school," said the French Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Cecile Pozzo di Borgo.

    France called on the kidnappers to release the hostages and "expressed at this dramatic moment its solidarity with the Russian people," she said at a news conference.

    Many other countries also denounced the terrorist act. Enditem