""I came in the boot of a car. Georgian snipers were firing at us from the forest. My brother stayed to fight. Our grandparents' home was reduced to rubble. We don't know where they are. Nothing is left of their village. It was totally destroyed by rockets and tank fire," Alisa Mamiyeva, 26, a teacher in Tskhinvali, said from the safety of Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia....In Georgia, residents also gave accounts of horror, this time at Russian hands. Neither side is allowing independent reporters into the worst affected areas. Gori, the main staging post for Georgian troops on the way to and from South Ossetia, was largely a ghost town last night after thousands of residents escaped from Russian air attacks, a local journalist told the Guardian. "The town and many nearby villages are too dangerous. There are many wounded. No one knows how many are dead," said Saba Tsitsikashvili."