Russian security forces hide behind the wall during a military operation around the school seized by heavily armed masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya , September 3, 2004.

More than 200 people were killed following fighting to end a hostage-taking standoff in a southern Russian school on Friday, Interfax news agency reported quoting health officials.

"Over 200 people were shot by hostage-takers or died of injury due to explosions set off by the militants," a source from the North Ossetian Health Ministry said.

It is unclear how many children were among the victims.

Itar-Tass news agency said earlier that 704 people had been hospitalized with injuries, 259 of whom are children.

Resistance of militants on the premises of school in southern Russia has been fully put down, Itar-Tass news agency cited crisis center as saying.

27 hostage-takers killed in Russian school raid

A total of 27 hostage-takers were killed in Friday's storming by Russian forces aimed to save people held in a southern Russian school, Interfax quoted a crisis center official as saying.

An official from the headquarters for release of hostages said that eight militants were killed in the school where the hostages have held hundreds of hostages and the rest were killed in nearby areas.

The source confirmed that the operation to eliminate the hostage-takers remaining in the school has concluded but searching efforts are still underway.

The source confirmed that there were loses of staff from the Russian special forces, law enforcement agencies and the Emergency Situation Ministry that took part in the hostage-rescuing operation.

332 Russian children hospitalized after school hostage-rescuing raid

Russian Interior Ministry officer carries an injured girl after she was released from the school seized by heavily armed masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya, September 3, 2004.

At least 332 children have been hospitalized following Friday's hostage-rescuing operation in the southern Russian school, Interfax news agency reported.

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said some 646 people were injured in the tragedy, according to Itar-Tass news agency.

Of those killed in the operation carried out by Russian special forces to rescue hostages taken by armed militants for over two days in North Ossetian republic, 79 have been identified, head of local security service Valery Andreyev said.

Earlier reports said at least 100 bodies were found in the gymnasium of the school which have been held by armed militants since Wednesday but the death toll may hit over 150.

An explosion ripped a school facility Friday evening.

Russian troops are fighting at the school area as hostage-takers may still hold people inside the building.

Aslanbek Aslakhanov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's advisor, has said that the number of hostages may reach over 1,200 and 70 percent of them were children.

Source: Xinhua