Putin: Hostage-Takers Aimed ?to Blow up? North Caucasus

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited North Ossetian town of Beslan on September 4 after the bloody end of school siege, said that one of the main goals of the hostage-takers ?was to provoke inter-ethnic enmity and to blow up North Caucasus.?

?Everyone who will yield to this provocation will be regarded as an accomplice in terrorism,? Russian state television showed Putin saying during the meeting with the North Ossetian leadership.

Russian President also ordered to close borders of North Ossetian Republic, which neighbors with Georgia.

“I have ordered [North] Ossetia’s borders to be closed and checks to be carried out to find all people linked to the terrorist act,” Putin added.

At least 250 hostages, many of them children are reportedly killed after the Russian forces stormed school in Beslan seized by the group of gunmen on September 1. But the death toll will increase as recovery of dead bodies from school continues.