For three days, gunmen held over a thousand people hostage in a school in Beslan, in North Ossetia, on the first day of a new academic year in September 2004. Officially, the tragedy claimed 331 lives, including 186 children, and left more than 700 people wounded.
"Doctors are examining patients in the ear department of the republic's oncology center," a health official in North Ossetia said. "In two days, about 20 children and teenagers with hearing problems have been prescribed the necessary treatment."
The official said French surgeons would soon start operating on the children to restore their hearing.
The hearing problems were caused by explosions that rocked through the school gym on the third day of the hostage crisis, and by gunmen fire from within the building shortly afterward. A shootout between hostage-takers and troops ensued, and special forces stormed the building.
