Beslan commemorates all victims of 2004 terrorist act

VLADIKAVKAZ. Sept 3 (Interfax) – A three-day memorial campaign dedicated to the victims of the terrorist act staged at school #1 in 2004 ended in the city of Beslan on Thursday, an Interfax correspondent reported.

The last day of mourning for the victims of the terrorists in Beslan began at 9 a.m. by a religious service at the sports hall of the school, where the terrorists had kept more than 1,000 children and adults for three days.

As in previous years in the courtyard of the school, after reciting the poem called “Great Sorrow of Ossetia” in the Ossetian language written by poet Shamil Dzhigkayev after the terrorist act, bells rang twice at 01:05 p.m., symbolizing two blasts which went off at the sports hall on September 3, 2004.

After the bell chimes a minute of silence was announced. In complete silence the students of Beslan schools released into the sky 334 balloons which are equal to the number of casualties in the terrorist act and those who died later of their wounds.

Mourning events continued at the City of Angels memorial cemetery. More than 2,000 people came to pay tribute to the terrorist act victims and lay flowers and wreaths on the Tree of Sorrow monument and the monument to perished officers of the Alfa and Vympel Special Forces.

The Beslan secondary school #1 was captured by a group of terrorists on September 1, 2004. More than 1,200 people, including school students, their parents and teachers were taken hostage. Over three days they were kept without food and water in the school’s sports hall stuffed with explosives. The terrorist act killed 334 people, including more than 180 children.