Some 100 parents and grandparents of children who were killed in the Beslan school massacre last year blocked a highway in southern Russia for a second day today to demand that the regional president step down.
The protesters were are also calling for an international investigation into the September 1st-3rd terrorist seizure of the Beslan elementary school that left more than 330 hostages dead, a Moscow radio station reported.
On Thursday, the protesters set up a tent that blocked the main federal highway in the North Ossetia region, the Rostov-Baku road.
Regional President Alexander Dzasokhov spoke with the demonstrators this morning, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. He told them that he was interested in "balanced, constructive dialogue" and expressed his readiness "to meet time and again with the families of those suffering as a result of the terrorist attack in Beslan".
Mr Dzasokhov had faced heavy popular pressure to step down after the Beslan tragedy but remained in office, although he fired the regional government.
Many residents are incensed at regional authorities for failing to avert the attack on the school, which was seized September 1st by gunmen who held more than 1,000 people hostage for three days.
The seizure ended in explosions and gunfire, and more than half of the hostages killed were children.