Massacre at Beslan
This was Russia’s “Columbine”
The Columbine High School massacre in 1999 in Colorado has gone down in history as one of the worst such events in history. The two young men who committed the crime took the lives of 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves.
However, what happened at a school in Beslan, southern Russia, in September 2004, was on a completely different scale. It was an act of terrorism committed by a force of 32 militants who were seeking independence for their republic of Chechnya.
As the new term began, a group of masked and armed men and women approached from the railway tracks that ran behind the school. They entered the playground, rounded up over 1000 children and adults and herded them at gunpoint to the Sports Hall, a building 10 meters (32 feet) wide and 25 meters (82 feet) long. Here they confiscated cameras and mobile phones, rigged up a series of bombs and booby-traps, and announced that they were Chechen militants.
It was not long before the killing began. As police rushed into the playground to help the few parents and children who had made a desperate escape bid, the terrorists fired from the windows of the Hall. Some witnesses later reported that they then shot several male teachers inside the school.
