September 1, 2004
Terrorists took 1128 people hostage at a school assembly in Beslan. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of modern Russia.
A month and a half before the terrorist attack, the Ministry of Internal Affairs leadership warned local police officers about the impending seizure of a "civilian facility." To prevent a militant invasion from IngushetiaThe dirt road needed to be blocked. But the police didn't do it.
On the morning of September 1, 32 armed terrorists drove up to the building in a truck. Beslan school No. 1, No one stopped them. The only thing standing in the militants' way was an unarmed juvenile inspector. Fatima Dudieva.
Firing into the air, the terrorists herded more than 1100 people—children, their parents, relatives, and teachers—into the school building. There were many preschoolers there, as half of the kindergartens were closed that day, and parents had taken their little ones to the assembly line.
The school, built in 1889, proved to be an almost ideal target for capture: numerous extensions had turned it into a tangled labyrinth.
The militants demanded withdraw federal troops from Chechnya and recognize its independence.
By the end of the second day, they stopped bringing the hostages water or allowing them to use the toilet, forcing them to drink their own urine. Due to the hot weather, stench, and lack of ventilation, children and adults lost consciousness.
On the third day, special forces stormed the school. A total of 333 people were killed in the terrorist attack. 186 children, 111 parents and other relatives, 17 teachers, and 10 FSB special forces soldiers. Almost half died from shrapnel wounds.
The exact cause of death for another 116 people could not be determined because their bodies were severely burned. One theory is that this was due to the use of flamethrowers and tanks during the assault on the building.
In 2017, the ECHR ordered Russia to pay approximately three million euros to the relatives of the Beslan victims. It found that the security forces failed in their duties: they failed to prevent the terrorist attack and failed to ensure the safe storming of the prison.
The Russian government did not admit its mistakes.
