NPR

'Serious Failings' By Russia In Deadly Beslan School Siege, European Court Says

Russian officials were warned of an attack on a school and used "powerful weapons such as tank cannon, grenade launchers and flame-throwers," a European court says. More than 180 children died.
A lack of official coordination and the use of powerful weapons contributed to the casualties during a terrorist takeover of a school in Beslan, Russia, in 2004, a European court says. Here, people lay flowers and light candles at the school gym in 2009, marking the fifth anniversary of the attack.

Russia failed to prevent a 2004 attack on a school in the town of Beslan and then overreacted by using grenades, tanks and flamethrowers to end a three-day siege that killed more than 330 people, the European Court of Human Rights says, ruling in a case brought by victims of the attack and their families.

The court is ordering Russia to pay the plaintiffs nearly 3 million euros

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