MOSCOW, Sept 3 (AFP) - The Russian republic of Ingushetia Friday shut its border with North Ossetia, from where a group of hostage-takers were reportedly trying to flee after the school where they had been holding hundreds hostage was raided by special forces.
"We shut the border with North Ossetia towards the middle of the day, when we received the information that hostage-takers had escaped," Madina Khadyeva, an Ingush interior ministry spokeswoman, told AFP by telephone.
"We took this decision in order to prevent them from leaving North Ossetia through Ingushetia," she added.
Ingeshetia is nestled in between North Ossetia and separatist Chechnya.
What are believed to be 13 surviving hostage-takers reportedly broke out into three groups, trying to flee to neighboring regions.
"The biggest group is trying to flee towards the south of Beslan in the direction of the city of Vladikavkaz and the main roads," the official said, adding that a third group, including female suicide-bombers, were trying to escape by hiding in the crowd of former hostages.
Early on Wednesday, a group of around 20 armed men and women, some of them wearing explosive around their waist, had taken hundreds of children, parents and teachers hostage in the school.