Russian authorities have arrested senior police officers from the southern republic of Ingushetia, in relation to the school siege in the North Ossetian town of Beslan last month

More than 300 people, half of them children, died in the siege while hundreds more were injured. Details about how the terrorists seized the school in North Ossetia are still sketchy, but authorities believe they travelled through the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia. Three senior police officers from the Muslim region have been arrested, charged with negligence leading to the tragic events. Two senior officers from North Ossetia have also been accused of the same crime. But the arrests of the Ingush police officers are likely to further inflame tensions between the two ethnic groups, which have been simmering since a bloody civil war more than a decade ago. There are fears of revenge attacks in the region when the official mourning period for the Beslan victims comes to an end next week.