Russia holds memorial services on seventh anniversary of Beslan school massacre

[News_Editor]

Russia holds memorial services on seventh anniversary of Beslan school massacre

2011-09-01 22:00:00 GMT+7 (ICT)

BESLAN, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) -- Memorial services were held across the Russian Republic of North Ossetia-Alania on Thursday to honor the hundreds of people who died in September 2004 during a three-day hostage crisis at a school in Beslan.

On the seventh anniversary of the tragedy, hundreds of people gathered at School Number One to pay a quiet tribute to the victims. The memorial began at 9.15 a.m. local time, the moment when dozens of terrorists stormed the school in 2004.

The hostage crisis began on September 1, 2004, when Ingush and Chechen Islamic militants took more than 1,100 people hostage at the school. The attack began on the first day of school, just after school bells stopped ringing.

Flowers were laid at the site of the destroyed school on Thursday morning, and candles will continue to burn on the ruins until 1.05 p.m. local time on September 3, which marks the time when the crisis began its final chapter.

North Ossetia-Alania President Taymuraz Mamsurov, whose children were among the hostages, was among those attending Thursday's ceremony. Many other government officials also attended, although the annual memorials are always quiet and fairly small at the request of the families.

Religious services were also held in the school yard and across the republic, and they will continue until Saturday when the three-day memorial ends.

The Beslan school hostage crisis left 334 people killed, more than half of them children. Hundreds more were injured, and many of them have been left disabled for life. Others are still continuing to recover.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-09-01