‘No one should ever see this’: The bloody end to the tragedy in Beslan

The tragedy in Beslan stands as one of the most shocking and painful chapters in modern Russian history. On September 1, 2004, when children, their parents, and teachers arrived at School No.1 for the traditional ceremony marking the opening of the school year, no one could have imagined the nightmare that would unfold. The hostage-taking occurred suddenly, right in the midst of the festive bustle. Terrorists stormed the school, shattering the sense of normalcy. Over 1,100 people, the majority of them children, found themselves trapped in a booby-trapped building without food, water, or hope of rescue.

Three days of endless terror, fear, and waiting ensued, where each hour could be the last. When the first explosions rocked the gymnasium where most of the hostages were held, panic erupted. A fire engulfed the building, which partially collapsed, making the chances of survival even slimmer. By the time special forces began their assault, the school had already been reduced to rubble, and the hopes of relatives for the safe return of all hostages lay shattered.

This is the final installment of a trilogy recounting the events that transpired two decades ago in a provincial town in southern Russia. To learn about the factors leading to this tragic incident and the initial attempts to rescue the hostages, please read parts one and two.

Mystical explosions

On the morning of September 3, negotiators managed to reach an agreement with the terrorists to take away the bodies of the men who had been shot. The pile of corpses emitted an unbearable stench in the heat. Four rescuers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, led by Valery Zamaraev, made their way to the school.

At that point, it still felt like day two – things were terrifying but at least they remained under control. Two rescuers remained in the line of sight of the terrorists while the others carried out the dead. Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Beslan, special forces units prepared for the storming. The terrorists had moved the weakest hostages to the room next to the gym. Many journalists were now reporting from the scene.

In the gym, the leader of the terrorist group Ruslan Khuchbarov suddenly decided to reconfigure the detonation chain. With some of the children now in the adjoining room, he ordered some of the bombs to be relocated there. Explosives were to be disconnected from the chain, moved, and then reconnected in the new location.

It was 1pm, with the scorching sun at its highest. At that moment, rescue teams were heading to retrieve the second body when the first massive explosion rocked the school. Just 23 seconds later, a second blast followed.

The rescuers found themselves caught in crossfire. Dmitry Kormilin was killed instantly, while Valery Zamaraev succumbed to severe injuries at the hospital; two others were wounded but survived.

The explosions in the gym, packed with hostages, caught everyone off guard – including the terrorists themselves. They conveyed this to Ruslan Aushev, the former president of Ingushetia, who had established contact with them after the assault began. At that moment, nearly all the terrorists, except for the snipers holding their positions and five militants inside the gym, were gathered in the main school building, watching the emergency responders.

Few truly understood what was happening. However, the realization that they had crossed a point of no return came swiftly to all involved.

We’ll never know exactly what happened, but everyone close by was instantly killed. The makeshift bombs could have detonated by themselves, or a mentally and physically exhausted terrorist responsible for setting them up could have made a mistake. There is also speculation that the blasts within the school were triggered externally to hasten the onset of the storming operation. Nevertheless, investigators have found no evidence to support this theory.

One way or another, what happened in the following hours was remembered by Russia as one of the most terrible events in its history.

Gym of Death

Nearly half a dozen more explosions followed the first two blasts, including a fragmentation bomb suspended from the basketball hoop. The gym was full of the wounded, dying, and the dead.

The hostages who could still move bolted from the room, only to be shot by the terrorists.

Suddenly, Khuchbarov’s right hand Vladimir Khodov and others burst into the gym, grabbed everyone they could and herded them into the cafeteria. An elderly physical education teacher, Ivan Kanidi, reached for the nearest terrorist’s assault rifle. The terrorist dropped his weapon, pulled out a pistol, and fired a full magazine point-blank at the teacher. Outside the school, two rescuers were shot.

Irina Guriyeva was shoved into the cafeteria with her mother. During the initial explosions, her brother and sister were killed. The first thing the girl saw were containers for thawing meat and she immediately ran to drink the water.

Outside the school, chaos reigned. Snipers from the Alpha and Vympel units fired at any terrorists within sight. The insurgents returned fire with automatic weapons, five machine guns, and an anti-tank grenade launcher. Meanwhile, the special forces units rushed towards the school.

The chaos was further escalated by the Ossetian militias, many of whom were armed and who returned fire as best as they could. Officers from the Alpha team ran between their posts and the local militiamen, shouting at them to stop shooting. Those who could hear ceased fire, at least for a few minutes. Volunteers and rescuers raced toward the school, scooping up children and carrying or driving them to the military medical camp.

The gym was full of wounded and the dead. Some had taken refuge in the nearby room. Soon, the soldiers ripped off the window bars using an armored personnel carrier and sappers entered the gym.

The terrorists continued a relentless barrage from the adjacent wing of the school. The gym blocked the snipers’ line of sight. It was impossible to look out of the windows since the terrorists fired at any sign of movement. Two Alpha fighters who tried to open fire from the window to cover the sappers were immediately wounded. Despite this, sappers Colonel Gagloev and his partner made it to the gym and began disarming the explosives. Those people who could at least crawl dragged themselves to the adjoining room where hostages were being pulled to safety.

In reality, things unfolded much more slowly than it might seem. The gunfire started and ceased for many minutes. During this time, attempts were made to communicate with the terrorists to explain to them that this was not a storming operation. Negotiations ended when Khuchbarov shouted, “We don’t need anything, we’re here to die!” and communication was cut off.

The special forces tried to identify where the shooting was coming from in order to neutralize the terrorists and minimize the already catastrophic casualties. Since the hostages were gathered in the gym, the soldiers targeted the terrorist’s positions outside it using Shmel rocket-assisted thermobaric weapons. These weapons are often referred to as flamethrowers, but this term is somewhat misleading: the Shmel grenade creates a shockwave but doesn’t have an incendiary effect. Later, members of the Alpha and Vympel units were heavily criticized for allegedly causing the deaths of numerous children. However, photos taken by journalists at the scene clearly showed where the strikes landed, confirming that heavy fire was not directed at the gym, where the injured hostages lay, or at the cafeteria, where the terrorists had hoarded other captives.

Around 2:45 pm, a fire broke out in the gym. It was ignited by a grenade fired by the terrorists from a nearby wing, which struck wooden beams, setting them ablaze.

At first, the fire didn’t seem too bad, but there was no way to extinguish it amid the raging battle. The ceiling quickly caught fire. Burning debris started falling onto the injured hostages who were unable to escape.

At that moment, one of the terrorists, Nur-Pashi Kulayev, managed to slip out of the school, blending in with the crowd of hostages. He was quickly identified and caught, and was the only terrorist who survived that day.

Storm

The storming operation began at 3pm

Teams from the Alpha and Vympel units advanced from three directions: one group approached the school from the side where there were no militants, another came from the opposite end of the building near the library, and a third one moved from the side of the schoolyard.

Inside, the special forces encountered barricades, explosives, and firing positions. There is a lot of footage from the team that entered via the courtyard. Firefighters and numerous journalists also arrived. At that moment, some hostages were still hiding in the rooms next to the gym, and now they could finally be evacuated. 

Soldiers smashed windows and doors with armored vehicles, allowing children and injured soldiers to be carried out. Many reporters dropped their cameras to help the special forces and rescuers evacuate the children.

Photographer Yuri Kozyrev looked into the gym. Later, he said, “I saw it. I see it even now. I didn’t take a single picture because no one should ever see this.”

At that time, a horrible battle was taking place in the cafeteria. The terrorists had placed children as human shields in front of the windows and were firing wildly from behind them. A few militants also made their way into the auditorium on the floor above. The Alpha and Vympel units made their way through the school but couldn’t shoot back since there was always someone in their line of fire. Individual hostages who managed to escape were taken out of the building. The school had many adjoining buildings, which made the rescue effort even more challenging.

Outside the cafeteria, another storming team arrived. They managed to bring an armored personnel carrier right up to the window and rip the metal bars away. Special forces units burst into the cafeteria.

During the trial, student Nadezhda Badoeva recounted how a Vympel unit officer burst into the cafeteria just as a terrorist tossed a grenade at her feet. The officer shielded her and other children nearby, but was killed by shrapnel. Nadezhda pushed the dead soldier off and at this moment, another officer grabbed her. She had been wounded in the leg. Lieutenant Andrey Turkin, who died protecting the children from the grenade, was posthumously awarded the Hero of Russia title, the highest honorary title in Russia. He left behind a wife and son; a second son was born five months after his father’s death.

The terrorist who threw the grenade was the same one who had just killed the gym teacher. He didn’t have a chance to kill anyone else, as he was shot by the special forces.

The battle in the cafeteria almost turned into hand-to-hand combat, amidst clouds of dust. The militant leader, Khuchbarov, and most of his men were killed. A few others, including Khodov, were shot in the auditorium on the floor above.

By 5pm, the last hostages were led out of the school. A few terrorists were still hiding in the compound. Special forces commanders were indignant about the huge losses both among the hostages and their own men. No one wanted to risk lives, so after confirming that no children remained in the school, they fired reactive grenades at the building. Then, special forces pulled up a tank and finished off the remaining terrorists. The battle was finally over.

Epilogue

The word “tragedy” felt inadequate to describe what had happened. Between September 1 and 3, 186 children lost their lives, along with 111 adult family members, 17 teachers and school staff, ten special forces officers, one police officer, two rescuers, and six civilians who had helped evacuate the children during the siege. In total, the terrorist attack claimed 333 innocent lives.

Meanwhile, 31 terrorists were killed. The lone survivor, Nur-Pashi Kulayev, was tried in court. By this time, he no longer looked like a fanatic. He tried to dodge responsibility by claiming that he had joined the terrorist group by chance and insisting he hadn’t done anything wrong. However, several hostages recognized him as the man who had beaten and insulted them. Kulayev was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison (capital punishment is banned in Russia).

In Beslan and other locations, families buried their dead and tried to understand how to move forward. For many of them, life had turned into an endless requiem. Reading through the lists of victims was a haunting experience, there were whole rows of victims from the same families: in some, everyone was killed, while others were left with one surviving child and one parent. Over the years, many of the survivors have moved away, since staying in Beslan was unbearable for them.

A year after the attack, a BBC journalist interviewed one of the survivors, a nine-year-old boy named Chermen Bugulov. In the course of the conversation, the boy made a very unchildlike statement, “There is no God. There are armed forces. I believe in Russia and our military.”

Each September, visitors to the town cemetery place not only flowers but also bottles of water on the graves.

The tragedy in Beslan remains one of the most monstrous and senseless terrorist attacks in world history. On March 8, 2005, Aslan Maskhadov was found in a remote part of Chechnya. The man who had remained in hiding during the Beslan tragedy had chosen to hide once again. Only when he was surrounded, did he order his bodyguard to shoot him. Shamil Basayev, the mastermind behind the Beslan attack, tried to exploit the tragedy. Yet the horrible bloodshed did not change anything for him and his terrorist movement, which fell apart. In the summer of 2006, Basayev died when munitions in a vehicle he was standing beside exploded. Most likely, it was a makeshift bomb that detonated spontaneously, similar to the many devices used in the Beslan gym.

The Beslan attack broke some people and forged the character of others. Looking at the biographies of the children who survived that tragedy, it is striking how many of them became doctors. Oksana Makieva, who was just ten years old when, wounded, she crawled out of the gym, is now an infectious diseases specialist. Georgiy Ilyin, who mistook the gunfire for popping balloons on that first day of school, made headlines again in 2020 as a doctor battling Covid-19. Aida Sidakova, who was photographed on September 3 as she stood exhausted against the wall of the burning gym, is now a dentist.

Other survivors choose different paths. Stanislav Bokoev became a musician. On September 3, he suffered a severe neck injury that nearly claimed his life; he regained consciousness just as he was about to be put in a body bag, and was resuscitated. Artur Naifonov went on to win a bronze medal in freestyle wrestling at the Olympics. And Nadezhda Badoeva, who was shielded from a grenade blast by Andrey Turkin on September 3, has perhaps chosen the most honorable path of all – she simply became a mother.

Twenty years have passed since the terrorist attack in Beslan. The children of Beslan have grown up,  and now their own kids are heading off to school.