All news

Muscovites commemorate Nord-Ost terrorist attack victims

Fourteen years ago the terrorists seized almost a thousand people, including the actors and viewers of the Nord-Ost musical, and held them hostage for three days

MOSCOW, October 26 /TASS/. Moscow will remember the victims of a terror attack on the theatrical center in Dubrovka that took place in Moscow 14 years ago. Terrorists seized almost a thousand people, including the actors and viewers of the Nord-Ost musical, and held them hostage for three days.

The commemorations will start with a minute of silence outside the Dubrovka theatrical center at 10:00 Moscow time. "130 balloons - by the number of the Nord-Ost victims - will rise into the sky. Every victims will be remembered by name. The witnesses of those tragic events will also share their memories," the action’s organizers told TASS.

Muscovites and visitors from other cities who have been hurt in terror attacks; their families and relatives as well as representatives of the city authorities, public and youth organizations as well as Moscow schoolchildren will gather for the ceremony in Dubrovka organized by the Nord-Ost public organization for the protection of victims of terror attacks.

Forty armed terrorists burst into the theater late on October 23, 2002. They took 914 actors and viewers of the Nord-Ost musical hostage. A release operation, in which most hostages were freed, started in the morning on October 26.

The terror attack at the Dubrovka theatrical center, the biggest in Moscow, claimed the lives of 130 people, including 10 underage children. Sixty-nine children lost their parents and became orphans.