He also said that elders of Chechnya and Ingushetia tried to enter into negotiations with the militants. They are offering themselves in exchange for the schoolchildren.
In their turn, law enforcement bodies of North Ossetia told RIA Novosti that the group which seized the school presumably includes natives of Chechnya and Ingushetia and of some other nationalities.
Andreyev also said that following the hostage-taking in Beslan a criminal case was opened under three articles of the Criminal Code of Russia - murder, terrorism and hostage taking.
A day after the hostage-taking, outside the town administration building and the cultural centre, there still stand many relatives and parents of the schoolchildren.
The situation in the square is tense, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports.
The cultural centre has for a second day been running a facility for giving psychological support to children's parents. People can relax in the centre's hall, where a buffet is functioning, offering free services to the parents of the children.
Representatives of the republic's authorities regularly address the relatives. They ask them to keep calm and say that the priority task of the emergency headquarters is to preserve the lives of the hostages. No serious incidents have yet been reported from the square in front of the cultural centre, and on the whole relatives of the hostages are staying calm, not disrupting public law and order.
Also outside the cultural centre are most of the reporters, who are addressed every hour or ninety minutes by representatives of the emergency headquarters. Usually, such appearances before the press evoke a great interest among the locals, who try to put many questions to members of the law enforcement bodies and authorities of the republic.
Public law and order in the square is maintained by servicemen and members of the law enforcement bodies of North Ossetia.
Metal barriers were put up some time ago on the square's perimeter. All approaches to the school are as before sealed by the republic's OMON special police troops.
