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Three days of commemorations to mark 15 years since school siege in Beslan

In the evening, 334 candles will be lit in the courtyard of the school - by the number of people who died in that tragedy

VLADIKAVKAZ, September 1. /TASS/. Three days of commemorations to mark 15 years since the Beslan school siege start on Sunday in Russia's Republic of North Ossetia.

"The plan of the three-day mourning events has not changed over the years. Officials, public activists, residents and guests of the republic will participate in them. On the day of the school’s seizure on September 1 at 09:15 Moscow time, when the first shot rang out in the school yard, a school bell will ring out and the laying of flowers will begin," a source told TASS.

People will light candles at photos of the deceased, bring flowers, toys and water that the terrorists were not allowed to drink to the hostages, keeping them in the gym for three days.

In the evening, 334 candles will be lit in the courtyard of the school - by the number of people who died in that tragedy.

By tradition, flowers are brought to the Beslan memorial cemetery, City of Angels, where the victims of the terrorist attack were buried. Many taxi companies in the republic promise to take everyone to the cemetery and the school for free.

Beslan terror attack

The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan massacre) started on September 1, 2004, when a gang of 30 terrorists seized Beslan’s school N. 1 on the first day of the academic year during a gala ceremony in the yard. The terrorists forced more than one thousand hostages, including small kids, into the school’s gym and kept them there for three days without food and water. The operation to free the hostages began on September 3.

The tragedy claimed 334 lives. Of those killed 318 were hostages, including 186 children. Nine commandoes, two emergencies ministry specialists and 15 police were killed and another 810 hostages, commandoes, police and troops were injured.

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