Russia: Beslan Massacre 2004 (1 Viewer)

[DeathHand]

I did a bit of a search to see what images of the Beslan School Massacre were posted but couldn't find a thread that seemed to have much at all (although a thread might exist but is just generically named).

So, I'm setting up this thread that will contain only images and info from the Beslan Massacre. that happened way back in September 2004 in Beslan, North Ossetia.

"The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan massacre) of early September 2004 lasted three days and involved the capture of over 1,100 people as hostages (including 777 children), ending with the death of over 380 people. The crisis began when a group of armed separatist militants, mostly Ingush and Chechen, occupied School Number One (SNO) in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia (an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation) on 1 September 2004

The hostage-takers were the Riyadus-Salikhin Battalion, sent by the Chechen separatist warlord Shamil Basayev, who demanded an end to the Second Chechen War and Russian withdrawal from Chechnya. On the third day of the standoff, Russian security forces entered the building with the use of tanks, incendiary rockets and other heavy weapons. 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."

Set 1.

1. Charred human remains in the school gymnasium.

2. Using incendiary bombs, the Russian forces probably cause the most deaths.

3.

4. Forensic workers inspect the human remains.

 

[DeathHand]

"The attack on the school took place on 1 September—the traditional start of the Russian school year, referred to as "First September" or Knowledge Day. On this day, the children, accompanied by their parents and other relatives, attend ceremonies hosted by their school. Because of the Day of Knowledge festivities, the number of people in the schools was considerably higher than on normal school day. Early in the morning, a group of several dozen heavily-armed Islamic-nationalist guerrillas left a forest encampment located in the vicinity of the village of Psedakh in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia, east of North Ossetia and west of war-torn Chechnya.

The rebels wore green military camouflage and black balaclava masks, and in some cases were also wearing explosive belts and explosive underwear. On the way to Beslan, on a country road near the North Ossetian village of Khurikau, they captured an Ingush police officer, Major Sultan Gurazhev. Gurazhev escaped after reaching the town[clarification needed] and went to the district police department to inform that his duty handgun and badge were taken away."

Set 2.

5.

6. A young boy lies dead under a window frame outside the gymnasium.

7.

8.

 

[DeathHand]

"At 09:11 local time [Sept. 1, 2004], the rebels arrived at Beslan in a GAZelle police van and a GAZ-66 military truck. Many witnesses and independent experts claim that there were, in fact, two groups of attackers, and that the first group was already at the school when the second group arrived by truck. At first, some at the school mistook the guerrillas for Russian special forces practising a security drill. However, the attackers soon began shooting in the air and forcing everybody from the school grounds into the building.

During the initial chaos, up to 50 people managed to flee and alert authorities to the situation. A number of people also managed to hide in the boiler room. After an exchange of gunfire against the police and an armed local civilian, in which reportedly one attacker was killed and two were wounded, the militants seized the school building. Reports of the death toll from this shoot-out ranged from two to eight people, while more than a dozen people were injured."

Set 3.

9. A child is removed from the scene.

10. A wounded member of the Russian Special Forces.

11. The remains of the terrorists (the next several photos are also of the dead terrorists).

12.

 

[DeathHand]

"The attackers took approximately 1,100 hostages. The number of hostages was initially downplayed by the government to 200–400, and then for an unknown reason announced to be exactly 354. In 2005, their number was put at 1,128. The militants herded their captives into the school's gym and confiscated all their mobile phones under threat of death, and ordered everyone to speak in Russian and only when spoken to.

When a father named Ruslan Betrozov stood to calm people and repeat the rules in the local language, Ossetic, a gunman approached him, asked Betrozov if he was done, and then shot him in the head. Another father named Vadim Bolloyev, who refused to kneel, was also shot by a captor and then bled to death. Their bodies were dragged from the sports hall, leaving a trail of blood later visible in the video made by the hostage-takers."

Set 4.

13.

14.

15.

16.

 

[DeathHand]

"After gathering the hostages in the gym, the attackers singled out 15–20 of whom they thought were the strongest adults among the male teachers, school employees, and fathers, and took them into a corridor next to the cafeteria on the second floor, where a deadly blast soon took place. An explosive belt on one of the female bombers detonated, killing another female bomber (it was also claimed the second woman died from a bullet wound) and several of the selected hostages, as well as mortally injuring one male hostage-taker. According to the version presented by the surviving hostage-taker, the blast was actually triggered by the "Polkovnik" (the group leader); he set off the bomb by remote control to kill those who openly disagreed about the child hostages and intimidate other possible dissenters.

The hostages from this group who were still alive were then ordered to lie down and shot with an automatic rifle by another gunman; all but one of them were killed. The militants then forced other hostages to throw the bodies out of the building and to wash the blood off the floor. One of these hostages, Aslan Kudzayev, escaped by jumping out the window; the authorities briefly detained him as a suspected hostage-taker. Karen Mdinaradze, the Alania football team's cameraman, survived the explosion as well as the shooting; when discovered to be still alive, he was allowed to return to the sports hall, where he lost consciousness."

Set 5.

17.

18.

19.

20.

 

[DeathHand]

"The attackers mined the gym and the rest of the building with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and surrounded it with tripwires. In a further bid to deter rescue attempts, they threatened to kill 50 hostages for every one of their own members killed by the police, and to kill 20 hostages for every gunman injured. They also threatened to blow up the school if government forces attacked.

To avoid being overwhelmed by gas attack like their comrades in the 2002 Moscow hostage crisis, [the] insurgents quickly smashed the school's windows. The captors prevented hostages from eating and drinking (calling this a "hunger strike", which they said they joined too) until North Ossetia's President Alexander Dzasokhov would arrive to negotiate with them. However, the FSB set up their own crisis headquarters from which Dzasokhov was excluded, and threatened to arrest him if he tried to go to the school."

Set 6.

21.

22.

23.

24.

 

[DeathHand]

"The lack of food and water took its toll on the young children, many of whom were forced to stand for long periods in the hot, tightly-packed gym. Many children took off their clothing because of the sweltering heat within the gymnasium, which led to rumours of sexual impropriety, though the hostages later explained it was merely due to the stifling heat and being denied any water. Many children fainted, and parents feared they would die. Some hostages drank their own urine.

Occasionally, the militants (many of whom took off their masks) took out some of the unconscious children and poured water on their heads before returning them to the sports hall. Later in the day, some adults also started to faint from fatigue and thirst. Because of the conditions in the gym, when the explosion and gun battle began on the third day, many of the surviving children were so fatigued that they were barely able to flee from the carnage."

Set 7.

25.

26. Bodies of the Chechen captors.

27.

28.

 

[DeathHand]

"Around 13:00 on 3 September 2004, it was agreed to allow four Ministry of the Emergency Situations medical workers in two ambulances to remove 20 bodies from the school grounds, as well as to bring the corpse of the killed rebel to the school. However, at 13:03, when the paramedics approached the school, an explosion was heard from the gymnasium. The hostage-takers then opened fire on them, killing two. The other two took cover behind their vehicle.

The second, "strange-sounding", explosion was heard 22 seconds later.[18] At 13:05 the fire on the roof of the sports hall started and soon the burning rafters and roofing fell onto the hostages below, many of them injured but still living. Eventually, the entire roof collapsed, turning the room into an inferno. The flames reportedly killed some 160 people (more than half of all hostage fatalities)."

Set 8.

29.

30. Civilian bodies outside a gymnasium window.

31. Bagging the dead.

32. Before the fire: bodies can be seen on the gymnasium floor while an adult female and child lay dead outside.

 

[DeathHand]

"Part of the sports hall wall was demolished by the explosions, allowing some hostages to escape. Local militia opened fire, and the militants returned fire. A number of people were killed in the crossfire.[85] Russian officials say militants shot hostages as they ran, and the military fired back. The government asserts that once the shooting started, troops had no choice but to storm the building. However, some accounts from the town's residents have contradicted that official version of events.

According to military prosecutor, a BTR armoured vehicle drove close to the school and opened fire from its 14.5x114mm KPV heavy machine gun at the windows on the second floor. Eye-witnesses (among them Totoonti and Kesayev) and journalists saw two T-72 tanks advance on the school that afternoon, at least one of which fired its 125 mm main gun several times. During the later trial, tank commander Viktor Kindeyev testified to having fired "one blank shot and six antipersonnel-high explosive shells" on orders from the FSB. The use of tanks and armoured personnel carriers was eventually admitted to by Lieutenant General Viktor Sobolev, commander of the 58th Army.

Another witness cited in the Kesayev report claims that he had jumped onto the turret of a tank in an attempt to prevent it from firing on the school. Scores of hostages were moved by the militants from the burning sports hall into the other parts of the school, in particular the cafeteria, where they were forced to stand at windows. Many of them were shot by troops outside as they were used as human shields, according to the survivors (such as Kudzeyeva, Kusrayeva and Naldikoyeva). Savelyev estimated that 106 to 110 hostages died after being moved to the cafeteria."

Set 9.

33.

34.

35.

36.

 

[DeathHand]

"The day after the storming, bulldozers gathered the debris of the building, including the body parts of the victims, and removed it to a garbage dump. The first of the many funerals were conducted on 4 September, the day after the final assault, with more following soon after, including mass burials of 120 people.

The local cemetery was too small and had to be expanded to an adjacent plot of land to accommodate the dead. Three days after the siege, 180 people were still missing.

Many survivors remained severely traumatized and at least one female former hostage committed suicide after returning home."

Set 10.

37.

38.

39.

40. "The Tree of Grief" - a monument to the Beslan hostage tragedy, in North Ossetia.

 

[DeathHand]

Gymnasium Windows

The next few sets contain photos that were taken from a nearby building looking into the gymnasium, where most of the hostages were kept. Up until the fire in the gym starts, you can see people inside the gym - adults and students.

Set 1.

1.

2.

 

[DeathHand]

Gymnasium Windows

This set shows a small girl, maybe 8-10 years old, who escaped through one of the gym windows.

Set 2.

3a. A boy watches as the girl (bottom right) hoists herself out the window frame.

3b. The boy looks out the window after the girl drops to the ground below. Adults can be seen in left portion.

3c. The boy is gone from the window. But the girl has landed safely.

3d. Closer version of the girl having landed on the ground. People are seen inside the gym.

3e. As the girl remains sitting on the ground, an adult female appears to have also jumped out the same window.

3f. The adult female is gone, people are still in the gym, and the little girl starts to stand up.

3g. The girl begins to walk away. Not known if she survived.

 

[DeathHand]

Gymnasium Windows

Set 3.

4a. The fire inside the gym starts.

4b. The fire continues. Those that were still inside the gym perish.

4c. The fire has been put out (from the other side).

 

[DeathHand]

Gymnasium Windows

Set 4.

1. The shell of the gym, cleaned up and lined with flowers & candles, after a memorial service.

 

[DeathHand]

The Rescue

Many adults and children were rescued by both soldiers and civilians and they managed to escape through a window or a door. Most of these rescues occurred before the captors had all been killed.

Set 1.

1.

2.

3.

4.

 

[DeathHand]

The Rescue

Set 2.

5.

6.

7.

8.

 

[DeathHand]

The Rescue

Set 3.

9.

10.

11.

12.

 

[DeathHand]

The Rescue

Set 4.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17. As people take cover at the lower left, the captors are still being shot at as they try to take positions in the hallways and classrooms.

 

[Kalgacus]

Superb thread.
Alot of unseen pics there. Here's a few choice pics of the hostage takers, postmortem -

 

[DeathHand]

Lols ya, was just getting there.