Putin vows to strengthen security

Russian President Vladi mir Putin visits a victim of the besieged school at a hospital in Beslan, September 4, 2004. Putin ordered a crackdown in seething southern Russia after a school siege killed at least 250, and warned Chechen sympathisers they would be seen as "accomplices of terrorism". (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

The tragedy "is a challenge to the whole of Russia. To all of our people," Putin said in a televised address to the nation Saturday.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)

Russian President Vladimir Putin consoles a woman injured in Russian school hostage crisis at a hospital in Beslan, September 4, 2004. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)