MOSCOW, September 3 (RIA Novosti) - Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II paid tribute Sunday to the victims of the Beslan school hostage-taking tragedy, which claimed 331 lives, including 186 children, two years ago.
A group of militants seized secondary school No. 1 in the town of Beslan, 30 km northwest of Vladikavkaz, the capital of Russia's republic of North Ossetia, September 1, 2004, killing 17 in the first few hours.
The three-day school siege, orchestrated by Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who was killed in a Special Forces operation in the summer of 2006, ended when troops stormed the school and rescued about 1,000 people.
"While remembering this tragic day today, I want to propose singing eternal memory to those who gave up their lives in Beslan, to adults and children who were killed by terrorists. May their memory be eternal," Alexy II said at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
