Moscow: Over 200 hostages have been killed in the Russian school siege in the Caucasian town of Beslan in North Ossetia, the provincial Health Ministry said today (Sep 4, 2004).

The hostages died as a result of bullet wounds or the explosions in the school gym carried out by the terrorists, RIA Novosti quoted the ministry as saying.

Doctors attending to the victims said the children and adults held at the school mostly received wounds on their back when terrorists holed up there opened fire at the fleeing hostages.

Over 650 people are undergoing treatment in various hospitals of the city and the provincial capital Vladikavkaz after the crisis got over yesterday (Sep 3, 2004).

The Federal Government has sent two special medical planes to airlift seriously wounded children to the country's best clinics in Moscow.