BESLAN, Sept 4: Rescuers pulled more bodies from the ruins of a school gym on Saturday as Russia was plunged into mourning after a three-day hostage-taking ended in carnage, with at least 330 dead, half of them children.

Hundreds more were injured in the climax of the siege by militants demanding independence for Chechnya, anxious relatives scoured lists of names desperately searching for people still missing among about 1,000 hostages.

President Vladimir Putin, who had vowed the safety of the hostages was his top priority, paid a surprise pre-dawn trip to the North Ossetian town of Beslan to visit some of the 700 injured and said the whole of Russia shared its grief.

"All of Russia suffers for you and prays together with the people of the republic," said Mr Putin during his visit to the republic. -AFP