The bloodiest school attack in history: the massacre in Beslan

History is full of wars and violent incidents in which millions of people died. One such tragic event took place in 2004 in the city of Beslan in Ossetia, an autonomous region of Russia. On September 1, 2004, 30 Chechen attackers, including 2 women, came to school No. 1 in Beslan and took more than 1,000 people hostage, including students, parents and teachers. The hostage crisis, which lasted 3 days, was overcome on September 4 thanks to the intervention of military units of the Russian army. But by the time the incident ended, more than 300 people had died, mostly students. This event, which has been recorded as the bloodiest school attack in history, was first called the Siege of Beslan and then the Beslan Massacre.

On September 1, 2004, Chechen fighters arrived at school No. 1 in the city of Beslan, Ossetian Autonomous Region.

The perpetrators, who took action to implement their terrible plans, also chose September 1, the day the schools open. Therefore, the school was more crowded than usual. On the morning of September 1, about 1100 students, teachers and parents gathered at school No. 1.

Schoolchildren were celebrating the start of the new school year even before the first bell rang.

So much so that the fire opened by the Chechens in the air mixed first of all with the sounds of fireworks, and no one understood what was to happen in the near future …

The attackers took everyone to the school hostage and herded them into the school gym.

The siege of Beslan began. The attackers wanted Russia to leave Chechnya, otherwise they said that they would kill the hostages…

The siege of Beslan lasted three days.

Hundreds of hostages witnessed the most difficult three days of their lives. The Chechens did not allow the hostages to eat or drink water. They confiscated their personal belongings and treated them very badly. It was easiest for the hostages to spend three days in a small gym with hundreds of people…

Chechens started killing male hostages on the second day of the siege!

So they showed the Russian authorities how serious they are. The surviving hostages, on the contrary, continued to wait with great fear …

On the third day of the siege, the Chechens laid the school hall and the surrounding area with a large amount of explosives!

There were also Chechens who tied bombs to themselves. However, a large number of soldiers and heavy weapons belonging to the Russian army were also outside the school. All these preparations were a harbinger of war, or rather a massacre, which was soon to begin …

At about 13:00 on September 4, 2004, an explosion sounded at school No. 1.

This was also a sign that the war had begun! A terrible conflict broke out between the soldiers and the Chechen aggressors. Tanks, flamethrowers, grenades and long-barreled rifles were used in the battle.

When the fight ended and the black smoke cleared over the school, the picture that unfolded was chilling! Of the hostages left unprotected amid the two fires, 186 were children, and 331 died.

Only one of the Chechen attackers, Nur-Pasha Kulaev, survived.

The event, which began as the Siege of Beslan on September 1, 2004, after September 4, 2004 will be called the Beslan Massacre.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the attack “a direct intervention of international terrorism in Russia.”

However, the reports that will appear in subsequent years about the Beslan massacre will show that the Russian government is also responsible for the loss of hundreds of lives.

In 2017, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia had “seriously failed” in the Beslan massacre.

The Russian authorities were unable to prevent the attack, even though they had intelligence that a school in Beslan could be attacked! However, they did not hesitate to use excessive force, neglecting the safety of the lives of the hostages during the “rescue” operation. In other words, the Siege of Beslan turned into a massacre, partly due to the irresponsibility of the Russian state, and became the bloodiest school attack in history…

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