The Taoiseach has joined world leaders in strongly condemning the actions of the gunmen at the siege at a school in southern Russia, where at least 150 people have been killed according to the latest reports.
Bertie Ahern described the events in north Ossetia as a terrible tragedy.
Speaking in Drogheda, he said it was awful that such events could take place and that children and their parents had such an horrific ordeal.
Father Michael Gogoleff, Dean of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ireland, has described today's events as a horrible tragedy.
The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was 'horrified' to learn that a large number of children and others had lost their lives or were injured.
Speaking for the European Union, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot called the hostage crisis a ‘deep human tragedy’.
Mr Bot, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said it was regrettable that the hostage crisis could not be solved peacefully.
However, he said he understood the difficult dilemma the Russian government was confronted with.
A spokesman for the US President George W Bush said the hostage taking was a 'barbaric' terrorist act and blamed what he termed 'the terrorists' for the loss of life.
The world's leading Sunni Muslim authority, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, denounced the hostage-takers as ‘criminals’.
Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi said that it was wrong to make innocent children take responsibility for a disagreement with a State.
