What happened at Beslan school?

On 1 September 2004 Chechen separatists took over School No.1 in Beslan, a small city of 40,000 people in North Ossetia, which shares a small part of its border with Chechnya. The group stormed the school, held over 1,000 adults and children hostage, and began rigging bombs everywhere from the ceiling to the walls, and even in basketball hoops. The hostages, who were confined to the cramped gym, were refused food and water; many drank their own urine to avoid total dehydration, and removed their clothes because of the heat. After a few days of extreme tension, Russian special forces entered the school after hearing explosions. Over 330 hostages were killed during this siege, of which 186 were children, and at least 700 were injured. Of the 32 separatists involved, 31 were killed and the sole survivor was handed a life sentence for his involvement. The Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev later claimed to have been the mastermind behind the siege. He was killed in July 2006, apparently by Russian special forces.

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