New arrest in seizure of school

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia – Officials have detained a third person in connection with the September seizure of a southern Russian school by armed militants that ended in death for hundreds of children and adults, a law enforcement spokesman said Monday.

Sergei Prokopov, a top official with prosecutors for Russia’s southern federal district, did not release the detainee’s name, but said he was of Ingush ethnicity.

Last week, Nikolai Shepel, a deputy prosecutor general with the southern district, announced that seven suspected accomplices had been killed in special operations, two arrested and charged, and six put on a federal wanted list.

Residents of Beslan, the town where the seizure occurred, are losing patience with the pace of the probe into the Sept. 1-3 attack. Heavily armed militants held more than 1,000 hostages in School No. 1 for three days before gunfire and explosion erupted. More than 330 hostages died — nearly half of them children.

Outside Beslan, hundreds of distraught relatives have blocked a key highway, seeking more information about the inquiry and demanding the regional president’s resignation.

Russian officials have said 32 raiders took part in the attack, with 31 of them killed while one was captured. Media reports and even the lawmaker leading a probe into the attack have suggested the possibility of more attackers and that some escaped.

Several of the attackers have been identified as Ingush — an ethnic group that is a historic rival to the Ossetians in North Ossetia where Beslan is located. Many Ossetians have vowed to exact revenge on the Ingush in response to the Beslan attack.