At least 340 people, including 155 children, died during the bloody end to the school siege in southern Russia and is expected to rise, according to the most recent figures.
As emergency workers today continue the horrifying task of searching for bodies, officials said dozens of dead bodies may yet be discoverd from the North Ossetia school where yesterday terrorists killed hostages as the siege in the small town of Beslan was lifted after the intervention of Russian special forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a pre-dawn visit to the scene to hear local officials say dozens of corpses remain in the school, with retrieval hampered by fears parts of the campus are mined.
Mr Putin had earlier toured the heavily damaged school complex, still smouldering from the waves of explosions which tore through the site's sports hall yesterday.
Hours after commandos stormed the gym and began running gun battles with militants, Mr Putin ordered the region's borders to be sealed off as a hunt continues for the remaining fugitives.
"All Russia grieves with you," Mr Putin told officials in the North Ossetia region as messages of sympathy and support continued to pour in from across the world.
Over 1,000 hostages had been crammed into the school's small gym for almost three days, before the stand-off came to a bloody end yesterday, shortly after 10 a.m. Irish time.
Mr Lev Dzugayev, a spokesman for the North Ossetian regional authorities said the total number of hostages in the school was more than 1,000 people.
There had been considerable confusion over how many people were held captive with first reports suggesting 350 while hostages released during the siege put the figure as high as 1,500.
Russian authorities said hostages began to flee after militants set off some of crude explosives - possibly by accident - as emergency workers entered the school to collect the bodies of slain hostages.
As children and adults began to run to their freedom, the kidnappers opened fire - sparking the order for troops to storm the building.
Bombs were later found strapped to the crumbled ceiling of the sports hall and hanging from basketball hoops.
The victims had yesterday been seen in states of shock as scores of dazed and tearful children emerged from their ordeal bloodied and semi-naked.
Amid scenes of chaos, the dead lay lined up on stretchers outside the brick buildings of the school.
Survivors said their masked and camouflaged captors had refused requests for water, leaving the hostages to drink their own urine.
Muslim separatists, including soldiers from the Middle East, have been fighting Russian forces in Chechnya for most of the past decade.
It is thought the kidnappers had demanded a Russian withdrawal of troops from Chechnya in return for the safe release of the hostages.
AP