il racconto di un ostaggio sopravvissuto

via paolo valdemarin, via logic&sanit, via gazzetta.ru.

Zalina, spent 2 days as a hostage and survived the storm. She tells her story to a reporter from gazeta.ru, apologies if the translation is a bit awkward (I am still at work and doing this as fast as I can).
"9:10am I walked my son (5th grader)to school. Two minutes after we walked into the court yard came the terrorists. There were about 20 of them and also 2 females. They herded us inside the school through the corridor and windows. Right away they killed 12-20 men - one at a time. Then a tank arrived and killed one of the terrorists, so they put several hostages next to a window and shot them dead. They threatened to kill 10 hostages for their dead, but I only saw about 4.
There were at least a thousand people in the gym. We sat on the floor. They threatened us and were generally very nervous - specially when it got noisy. They shot in the air. They put guns to some men's temple's and threatened to kill them if there's noise. At first they gave us water and let us use the bathroom. Women with infants were put up separately. One of the terrorists was even sneaking in dry milk for a woman's son, when his cohorts weren't looking.
Terrorists were videotaping everything. They gave the tape to a negotiator to show it to Putin. At night they put up the elderly in rooms were it wasn't as hot and gave everybody blankets.
They called negotiators a lot of times, but nobody wanted to speak with them. They said that the troops will storm them like they stormed the theater in Moscow in 2002.
I cooked for them in the kitchen, and for that they gave my son water. I talked to them and they told me that they want Putin to resign or to pull out the troops from Chechnya.
The principal of the school was horrified. She called officials on the phone, but nobody wanted to speak with her.
During the night, the terrorists told us that if they loose connection with the outside, they will shoot 10 people. The connection was lost (not sure if she talking bout radio contact or what), but they didnt' shoot anybody.
Terrorists didn't even know what town they were in - in the beginning they even asked us where they were. They said that traffic cops were bribed. If they used more money for the bribes then the would have taken hostage a school in a bigger city (gazeta.ru - probably Vladikavkaz).
While I was cooking in the kitchen, one of them came in and took me to another room and told me to lay down. The woman I was working with went back to the gym and was killed with a grenade the terrorists threw when the storming began.
I did not see troops/police storm in, but I heard children shouting "Don't shoot!" and then the explosives went off. The terrorists were screaming something in their language, don't know what, probably praying to Allah."