THEY may be separated by thousands of miles but the Beslan schoolchildren whose lives were shattered by violence and terror were quietly remembered by pupils in Newport yesterday.

Schools in the city have been holding a minute's silence for the children involved in those horrific events at the beginning of September.

Yesterday, youngsters at St David Lewis RC Primary School in Bettws prayed for the innocent victims of the Russian tragedy.

A spokeswoman for Newport council said the decision to have the silent tributes had been initiated by schools themselves.

"We have been very pleased that schools have been so thoughtful in wanting to sympathise with the terrible experiences of their counterparts in Beslan.

"All our thoughts have been with the children and their families and those who have tragically not survived."

Chechen terrorists held hundreds of hostages, many of them children, after taking over a school on the first day of term.

The siege came to a bloody end with commandos battling separatist rebels.

People around the world watched in horror as crying children, some covered in blood, fled the building through blasts and gunfire and then in sorrow as the town mourned hundreds of dead.