BESLAN, Russia, Sept 6 (AFP) - Lydia Tsaliyeva, the principal of Beslan's main school, lived through three days of "nightmare" as a heavily-armed gang held at gunpoint hundreds of her pupils, their relatives and teachers, massed in suffocating conditions in the gymnasium.
The 72-year-old, whose granddaughter and three great-nephews were among the hostages and survived, "never left the children for a second." She has been in hospital since Saturday with injuries in her right leg from grenade or explosive fragments.
Deafened by the explosion which triggered Friday's bloody assault by Russian forces, she recounts in a clear unfaltering voice the 51-hour ordeal that started when some 30 militants stormed the school as pupils and parents were celebrating the first day of the school year.
"There were lots of children, they were all there for the new school year, and many parents too. We were 1,300 people in the gymnasium, a room only 14 metres by 24 metres, and I don't understand why they thought we were 350," she says.
In a tired voice but without a trace of bitterness, the school director describes the deteriorating conditions inside the besieged gymnasium as the hostage-takers denied water to the increasingly desperate children and adults.
"The first day, when they herded us together, they behaved well towards us, allowed the children to drink water, go to the toilets.
"On the second day, they let off bursts of gunfire and came to me to say that if I did not impose some order and calm the children, they wouldn't let them go to the toilet anymore or have any water," she says.
Finally, the militants forbade the hostages from leaving the room at all and announced tersely: "'Here are three buckets, you cope with that!"
"The children were going crazy, they were crying and shouting: 'I want to drink, I want to drink'. They felt like they were breathing in gas, the smell (of excrement) was so strong. The terrorists repeated: 'Go back to your place,' and kicked the children."
According to Tsaliyeva, the hostage-takers soon issued their demand: the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. They asked her to pass it on to Leonid Roshal, a doctor who was one of the negotiators and whom she telephoned at the hostage crisis unit.
On the second day, former Ingush president Ruslan Aushev came into the school to negotiate with the guerrilla group.
"It was unbearably hot, the children were hungry and thirsty and were drinking their own urine, especially the little ones," she explained. "He said 'I am returning to Moscow and will go directly to inform Putin'".
The third day, the tension mounted. When the first explosion went off, the director fainted.
"When I came to, the roof was burning. I was lying under tables, chairs and pieces of wood. Just next to me, a terrorist was firing continuously, hidden behind some tables and chairs. He looked at me and signalled that I should go.
"My jacket and dress had burned on to me. I don't know how, but I struggled free and I crawled out," she said.