ISTANBUL, Sept 2 (AFP) - Three Turks, two children and their mother, are among hundreds of hostages seized at a Russian school close to Chechnya, the children`s father told the CNN Turk news channel on Thursday.
Seyfi Dogan said in an interview by telephone from the scene that his family was caught up in the incident when his Russian-born wife and their one-year-old baby accompanied their nine-year-old daughter to the school.
"At around nine o`clock (Wednesday morning) they raided and it was all over," Dogan said. "They`re shooting day and night -- I don`t know anything else."
The hostage-takers "barricaded the windows with tables and chairs and they just keep shooting," Dogan said, adding that the police appeared powerless.
"We`re just waiting along with the police," he said.
Dogan said he had decided to visit the region, the homeland of his ancestors, in 1992, liked it, married and settled there and was now working as a baker.
The attack, which has claimed 12 lives so far, led to the postponement Thursday of a planned visit to Turkey by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Defense and Foreign Ministers, Sergei Ivanov and Sergei Lavrov.
Ankara Thursday condemned the hostage-taking as an "unacceptable act of terrorism... which can in no way be justified."