A woman reacts at the former school, which came under an attack by Islamist militants in 2004 and is currently a centre of patriotic education and terrorism prevention, during a commemoration ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the deadly school siege in Beslan in the region of North Ossetia–Alania, Russia September 1, 2024. REUTERS/Sergey Pivovarov
BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - Mourners lit candles and placed icons on Sunday beneath photographs of the schoolchildren, teachers and parents who died 20 years ago when Islamist gunmen staged the deadliest militant attack in modern Russian history.
At least 32 attackers linked to a separatist insurgency in neighbouring Chechnya took over the school in the small town of Beslan on the first day of term on Sept. 1, 2004, seizing more than 1,000 hostages and holding them for three days.
