MOSCOW, Sept 8 (AFP) - Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov met Wednesday with President Vladimir Putin and delivered his initial report on the Beslan school hostage siege that claimed 336 lives, Russian media said.
While Ustinov's report had some details about the course of events surrounding the siege, it did not shed much light on the identity of those who took over 1,200 children, parents and children hostage in the school.
"Just before the attack, the group met in a wood near a village," Ustinov told Putin in the meeting, portions of which were broadcast on Russian television and which was covered by Russian news agencies.
Ustinov could not put an exact figure on the number of guerrillas involved in the school siege and quoted the only surviving hostage-taker as saying there had been around 30, including two women.
According to the prosecutor, the surviving hostage-taker had indicated that a man known as "Colonel" had supervised the siege, helped by another man he identified as Abdoul Malik.
"They left for Beslan on board three vehicles and arrived at dawn," Ustinov stated, adding that the gunmen had been stopped on their way only by one policeman.
"They drove into the school's courtyard ... they had an enormous quantity of weapons and explosives," he said.
According to the report, some guerrillas who had not been told what their target was refused to attack the school, prompting the "Colonel" to shoot one of them.
"On the same day, to warn both the rebels and the hostages, this bandit blew up two female suicide bombers by pressing a remote control," Ustinov told a grim-faced Putin.
The prosecutor said the skill with which the gunmen rigged the building with explosives showed they had been well prepared for the siege, but that an accidental blast occured while they were changing the explosives system, sparking panic among the hostages.
"Many hostages tried to escape, and the rebels opened fire," he said. "Today, we have huge losses in this terrorist act," he concluded.
The official death toll of the Beslan school siege stood at 336 Wednesday, but this figure was likely to rise as many former hostages still remain unaccounted for.