Speakers echoed Mr Putin's statements that terrorists must be crushed. But there was no doubt the entire Russian nation wanted to express its solidarity with the victims.Similar rallies were staged across Russia, including in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, where speakers called for the resignations of local politicians. Other banners had a more overt political message, saying: "We won't give Russia to terrorists" and "The enemy will be crushed; victory will be ours".Security was tight. One terrorist walked through the gym, packed with hostages, where a trail of smeared blood could be seen. Another crouched beside the bomb he was preparing that could be primed to blow up at any moment.

A teacher in a red dress was helping two pupils move towards the door, filmed by a camera used by the attackers to record their crime.One dressed in camouflage and a black hood stood with a boot on what the Russian NTV network said was a book rigged with a detonator. The woman militant stood in a doorway holding a pistol beside her head. There was also footage of a rocket-propelled grenade launcher lying on the floor.One of the attackers was heard talking on a mobile phone at the end of the one-and-a half minute video. He was not speaking in Russian - a revelation that could boost the official theory that the hostage-takers were international terrorists.More than 335 people - including 156 children - died in the dramatic and bloody end to the three-day siege, when Russian forces stormed the North Ossetia school where the hostages were held by a suicide commando calling for Chechen independence.The images were shown soon after Russians had taken to the streets in their hundreds of thousands in rallies across the country to denounce terrorism. Russian television has broadcast horrific and haunting pictures from inside the Beslan school during the three-day siege, showing the masked attackers with the captive schoolchildren - and bombs tied to basketball hoops in the gym.

We stare into the face of the evil that sees children as an easy, unresisting and sensationally headline-grabbing target We stare We keep staring And we learn nothing.. And at a time when Russian politicians show little sign of wanting to calm down their people.It is cold It is calculating It is chilling. His foot is on a book which appears to be a detonator for the bombs. With a flourish which is as theatrical as it is arrogant he waves his hand, white-gloved like some television magician, to the detonator.

These were pictures the outside world was clearly ­ whatever the outcome ­ meant to see. Their intention, presumably, was to provide proof of their appalling plans if the authorities failed to meet their demands. In the event, they were found by investigators after the siege was so tragically broken up. Their screening last night on Russian television- on the day that hundreds of thousands of Russians took to the streets to demonstrate their revulsion of terrorism in general and the Beslan massacre in particular- will only inflame a population already at boiling point. One terrorist, by contrast, is seen holding a bottle of water, bringing home the callousness of their three-day regime. A vivid indication of the appalling heat which made their ordeal so much worse is the way that the captives are shown furious fanninng themselves in the intense heat of the North Ossetian summer.The camera moves to a man who looks like the terrorist leader.