Official data puts the number of hostages being held in the school in Beslan at 354. On Thursday morning officials at the scene said seven people had died and 13 people are receiving medical attention in the local hospital. There are no children among the dead or injured.

Vladimir Putin called off a planned visit to Turkey Thursday morning. No reason was given by the Kremlin, but the Russian president clearly felt he could not leave the Russian Federation while the hostage-taking was unresolved.

UNThe United Nations Security Council passed a resolution late last night condemning the attack by the heavily-armed group. U.S. president George W. Bush has told his Russian counterpart that his country was ready to support the Russian Federation in any form to deal with the terrorist attack.

Two Arab television companies, al-Alyam and al-Jazeera, have offered help in the negotiation process for the release of the hostages.

A number of offers to take the place of the women and children being held had come from elders in both the Chechen Republic and Ingushetia as well as from people across the Russian Federation and the former Soviet Union. Calls offering help were even received from as far afield as New York, via a telephone hotline set up especially for the crisis.

amnesty_logoThe human rights organization Amnesty International, a member organisation of the Human Rights House “Russian Research Center for Human Rights”,  has strongly condemned the capture of hostages at the school in the N. Ossetian city  Beslan.

On Thursday the organization has distributed a statement where they ask Russian authorities to guarantee that any application of force with the purpose of releasing hostages will fully comply with international norms and will not put a life of people in danger.

Human Rights Watch also urged Russian authorities to take all measures to prevent harm to the hostages.