Th e European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia failed to protect the hostages of the Beslan school siege in which about 330 people died in 2004. In the siege, Chechen rebels took more than 1,000 hostages, mostly children.
Th e operation by Russian forces to end it used disproportionate force, the court added. It also said that offi cials knew an attack was imminent but did not act. Russia said the ruling was “utterly unacceptable” and that it would appeal. No Russian offi cial has been held responsible for the high number of deaths, which included 186 children.
Masked men and women, wearing bomb belts, burst into Beslan’s School Number One, opening fi re in the courtyard as a ceremony marking the beginning of the school year was fi nishing. Th e hostages were crammed into their school sports hall beneath explosives strung from the basketball hoops.
Th eir captors were demanding Russian troops pull out of Chechnya. Th e tense siege ended suddenly on the third day with two deadly explosions and intense gunfire.
Witnesses described the operation by Russian security forces as chaotic, saying that the troops used excessive force and heavy weapons. Only one of the hostage takers was caught alive and put on trial.