The sound of weeping parents who lost their sons and daughters in Russia's school siege drifted out of the homes of Beslan today as the first burials were held for some of the 338 people killed.
Throughout Beslan, coffin lids leaned against apartment house entrances, alongside wooden stakes bearing names of the dead.
Grieving relatives left front doors and windows open, in accordance to local custom, as the first coffins were brought to the cemetery where gravediggers have already dug row after row of plots.
Dozens of men had dug the graves in preparation for the more than 20 funerals scheduled for today.
"I wanted to help. The grief is for all of our people," said Anzor Kudziyev, who was one of about 60 volunteer gravediggers.
When a person goes to the cemetery for a burial, it's sad, but nothing like this - when you dig graves for your children".
As a light rain fell in the early afternoon, funeral processions snaked through the streets along with long and sombre lines of cars headed for the graveyard.
Weeping mourners placed flowers and wreaths at the graves and at the school at the centre of the tragedy, window sills were strewn with red and pink roses, while abandoned children's shoes still littered the floor.
People clutched photos of their relatives not yet found among either the living or the dead.
"I lost my boy," cried Svetlana Debloyeva (42) whose rounds of hospitals and morgues looking for her 11-year-old son, Zaur, have been fruitless. The two became separated during the chaotic, bloody end of the hostage crisis on Friday.
For local doctor Rimma Butueva, the search was successful but tragic. She spent days looking for her cousin Rosa, missing along with her nine-year-old son.
"We did not give up hope until the end," she said. "But when we saw her body we understood we wouldn't find her eldest son. The worst was recognising him by his clothing."
Soslan Bidoyev (23) was more fortunate. He managed to locate his brother in a hospital 10 miles away in the capital, Vladikavkaz.
"He told us that when the hostages were brought in, the gunmen made the adults pry open the gymnasium floor. They took out supplies of weapons from underneath the floor," he said.
"He told me the first explosion was right there."
Such accounts strengthened the view that the gunmen were well prepared and had local help, fuelling local anger.
Valery Andreyev, local head of the FSB security service, was quoted by Moscow radio saying the militants may have received help from local police.