Dozens of nations rallied around Russia yesterday with condolences and offers of humanitarian aid and hospital treatment for survivors of the school siege in the town of Beslan.
Two huge US military transport planes were on the way to North Ossetia from Germany, carrying tonnes of much-needed medical equipment and supplies for doctors who are working round the clock to treat more than 400 people suffering from burns and gunshot and shrapnel wounds.
Lithuania put aside normally rocky relations with its Soviet-era master to dispatch medical kit and blood for transfusions to Russia, and offered treatment in the Baltic Sea resort of Palanga to traumatised pupils of Beslan's now-infamous School Number One.
Italy, whose leader, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, has a warm relationship with his Russian counterpart Mr Vladimir Putin, sent a plane loaded with medical supplies to Beslan on Saturday, a day after the siege ended in a maelstrom of gunfire and explosions as soldiers and armed civilians battled suspected Chechen rebels.
Crowds of people gathered in Rome last night for a candlelight march for the victims and their families.
Germany has pledged €100,000 of medicine and equipment and Norway was sending a plane-load of aid last night, after the Russian Red Cross appealed for 10 ventilators, 10 machines to deliver anaesthetics through breathing masks and other heavy medical equipment. Some Red Cross and World Food Programme equipment arrived in Beslan yesterday, as the town buried hundreds of its dead after Russia's most deadly hostage crisis.
As Russia began the first of two days of mourning, with flags across the country at half-mast, scores of countries expressed their solidarity.
Schoolchildren throughout Poland, many dressed in black, stood in silence for one minute before classes, and the Prime Minister, Mr Marek Belka, told national radio: "On this day of tragedy in North Ossetia, we are all Russians, we are all Ossetians."
Echoing the messages of European leaders and US President Bush, former South African President Nelson Mandela sent a message to Russia, expressing his shock at the "inhumane and barbaric" events in Beslan.
