According to him, the terrorist attack claimed 330 lives.
"With regard to the fact that 90 bodies still remain unidentified, I can say that 53 of them were children (22 boys and 31 girls) and 37, adults (34 women and 3 men)," he said.
"I would like to appeal to the relatives of those missing: please come to a local prosecutor's office so that we could take a sample of your blood for testing, ask you some questions, and give you suitor status. Blood samples are needed for the identification of the bodies," Kolesnikov said.
According to him, experts are now examining some 70 or 80 body fragments belonging to victims of the terrorist act in Beslan. "I wish I could say that those 70 to 80 fragments belonged to just a few people, three or four," he added.
Early next week, the Prosecutor General's Office will reveal the identities of those involved in the terrorist attack on the Beslan school, Kolesnikov promised. "Our investigators have reliable evidence to identify the accomplices and organizers of this crime. The information will be made public next Monday or Tuesday. We have made tangible progress," he said.
He also reported that the hostage-takers' leader had been shot dead by security forces as they were storming the building. "There have been media reports that the terrorists' leader, nicknamed Colonel, was not among those killed in the operation. This is not true. The man has been identified by the suspect Kulayev (the only member of the gang to have survived)," Kolesnikov said, showing a photograph of the dead terrorist.
"We know his name and surname, but these are yet to be formally confirmed," the Deputy Prosecutor General said. "He got what he deserved, and is now in one of our refrigerators. The same is in store for other [terrorists]," he emphasized.
Earlier today, Kolesnikov and North Ossetian Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev received a group of women who had lost their children to the terrorist attack on the Beslan school. Kolesnikov promised to the women that authorities would carry out an impartial and comprehensive inquiry into security forces' response to the terror act.
"I am friends with some of North Ossetia's law-enforcers, but this will not prevent me from carrying out a comprehensive and unbiased probe into [their handling] of the terrorist attack [in Beslan]. I always mean what I say," Kolesnikov assured.
