Russia commemorates Beslan tragedy

On September 1st Russia marks the ninth anniversary of the Beslan tragedy. On this day in 2004 armed Islamist militants occupied School Number One in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia, capturing over 1,100 people as hostages.

At least 334 hostages were killed as a result of the crisis, including 186 children, with a significant number of people injured and reported missing.

According to historian Alan Kasayev, the tragedy is so horrible that one simply cannot realise how dreadful it was. "No comments by specialists can explain how it happened. It was terrible," he says.