South Ossetian separatists backed by Russian forces were accused today of deliberately targeting civilians around the abandoned Georgian city of Gori in blatant defiance of a French-brokered ceasefire.

But Georgian officials said that there was no need to panic over a long armed Russian column that rolled out of the city today and headed south towards the capital, Tbilisi.

The convoy of around 100 vehicles, including armoured personnel carriers, turned off the road after 20 km and was thought to be looping back to the disputed enclave.

The ceasefire was agreed yesterday and endorsed both by President Medvedev of Russia and President Saakashvili of Georgia during a visit by Nicolas Sarkozy, the current European Union chairman. It provides for both sides to return to their positions from before the conflict erupted late last week.

Vladimir Putin's mastery checkmates the West

Michael Binyon says Russia has been biding its time - but its victory in Georgia has been brutal and brilliant

Multimedia

• Video: stories from the front line

• Pictures: Georgia conflict

BACKGROUND

• Hellraising for the rich: how Osborne met Rothschild

• Oleg Deripaska - oligarch at centre of storm

Related Links

• Full text of the Russia-Georgia peace plan

• US cancels joint exercise with Russia

• Power in the pipeline: Why the BTC matters

Multimedia

• Pictures: Russia-Georgia war

• Russia calls the shots with Sarkozy

But although there were no reports of any engagements between Georgian and Russian forces, Russia was accused of sending tanks and armoured vehicles into Gori today and of sending its soldiers into villages in the surrounding hills from which smoke could be seen rising

Tony Halpin, a Times correspondent, was blocked from entering Gori at a checkpoint manned by Russian soldiers from Chechnya about a kilometre from the town. He then witnessed a "huge" Russian column as it rolled past, including armoured personnel carriers, troop-carrying trucks and support trucks with anti-aircraft guns.

Some of the soldiers aboard the convoy waved Russian flags and shouted out that they were headed for Tbilisi. "The ceasefire agreement specified that they were meant to go backwards. They are clearly going forwards," he said.

But Ekaterine Zguladze, Georgia's deputy interior minister, told a news conference in Tbilisi: "I’d like to calm everybody down. The Russian military is not advancing towards the capital."

Halpin said that the column turned off the Tbilisi road after about 20km and headed east to the village of Orjosani, where the Russians appeared to be preparing some kind of supply base. Many of those with the column were Ossetian irregulars identified by a piece of white cloth tied around their right arms.

Some of those on the convoy said that they had been ordered to set up base there, but a Georgian official later said that the convoy had continued on, looping round back to South Ossetia.

Halpin said that Georgian forces had set up defensive positions about 10km further down the road towards Tbilisi, about 40km from the capital.

The AFP reported that hundreds of South Ossetian rebels with some Russian army personnel went house-to-house in villages near Gori, setting houses ablaze and looting buildings.

Times Recommends

• Both sides blame US for worsening relations
• Stieg Larsson: losing the plot over his cash
• Odd creature paralysed by incompatible parts