Michael: Timeline, the Beslan school siege

Timeline: the Beslan school siegeStaff and agencies guardian.co.uk, Monday September 06 2004 14:46 BST Article historyWednesday September 1
0530 (all times BST): School seized by unknown gunmen, shots exchanged with police. Reports of death toll range from two to eight people. More than a dozen wounded.

0750: Russian media report that attackers are wearing suicide-bomb belts and threatening to blow up school. Hundreds of hostages, including many children, are herded into the gymnasium and the building is mined.

0900: More gunfire and explosions reported.

1340: Russian news agencies report 15 children released.

1630: Security official says authorities have established contact with hostage-takers.

Thursday September 2

1000: Ruslan Aushev, an Afghan war veteran and former president of neighbouring Ingushetia region, holds talks with hostage-takers in school gym.

1100: In his first comments on the attack, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, says: "Our main task is, of course, to save the lives and health of those who became hostages. All actions of our forces working on the hostages' release will be devoted ... to this task exclusively."

1240: First hostages released, women and small children taken to safety. Officials say a total of 26 hostages released.

Friday September 3

0900: Emergencies ministry workers approach school with agreement of militants to retrieve bodies of dead hostages that have been lying in front of school for two days. Later reports suggest that 10 to 20 hostages may have been executed by this stage in addition to the earlier fatalities.

1000-1030: There are two large explosions from inside the school followed by gunfire. Later reports suggest that the militants themselves may have caused the explosions. One report said one of the female hostage takers may have accidentally blown up her suicide belt. Other reports said that explosives hung over the hostages from basketball hoops in the gymnasium may have fallen and exploded.

Whatever the cause of the explosions, they prompt the chaos that follows. Hostages take the explosions as a signal to flee and militants then open fire on them. Security forces return fire and lead 30 women and children to safety. Some of the militants try to flee the building.

Security forces pursue them into a nearby town and storm the school building. An intense exchange of gunfire is reported as troops blow a hole in the side of one of the school buildings and begin freeing hostages. Bloody, partially clothed children run from the school. Soliders carry out the badly injured.

1030-1130: The roof of the school partially collapses after a series of explosions. Gun battles rage as some of the gunmen attempt to escape by breaking through the crowds of relatives surrounding the building.

Russia's Itar-Tass news agency says the school is under the control of Russian forces, but the sound of gunfire continues to be heard in and around the site. The Interfax agency quotes a security official as saying that most of the children have survived.

1130-1230: Gunfire continues at the school two hours after it was stormed. Itar-Tass reports all the hostages are believed to have been evacuated but it becomes clear later that some were still being held.

Several militants escape and take refuge in a local house, surrounded by Russian troops. Explosions and gunfire are heard in streets near the school.

1330: More than 100 bodies are found in the school, mostly in the gymnasium where the roof had collapsed. Two emergency workers are reportedly killed, as are 10 militants. Health officials say 409 are wounded, 219 of them children.

1555: Interfax reports three militants, possibly including the group's leader, are blockaded in school basement.

1630: AP reports a lull in the fighting. A Russian presidential aide says nine militants killed in the hostage crisis were Arab mercenaries.

1700-1800: A loud explosion is heard from inside school compound. Three militants are arrested trying to escape in civilian dress. Officials say four hostage-takers are still at large.

Itar-Tass cites a presidential aide as saying 70% of hostages in school were children. A regional security official says a police officer was killed by militants as he saved two child hostages. There are reports that almost 650 people were hospitalised.

1850: Fighting ends in the school's basement but two militants are still at large.

1910: A police explosives expert says on Russian television that bombs hung in basketball hoops in the school gym exploded, triggering commandos to storm the building.

1940:Interfax cites regional president as saying more than 400 adult and child hostages from the school are alive.

2015: Itar-Tass cites school crisis coordination centre as saying opposition by militants at the school has ended.

2120:The death toll rises to more than 200.

2140: Sporadic explosions and gunfire continue despite reports that all resistance by militants has been suppressed.

2150: Officials at the Russian crisis coordination centre say two militants have been killed in the past hour.

2300: Interfax quotes Russian official as saying a total of 27 hostage-takers have been killed.

Saturday September 4

0315:Mr Putin orders the borders of North Ossetia region closed while hostage takers are pursued.

0400: Mr Putin makes a surprise, pre-dawn visit to Beslan. During a hospital visit, a sombre president saw several of the victims. He was later criticised though for not meeting the families of victims.

1130: Itar-Tass quotes officials as saying 322 bodies, including those of 155 children, have been pulled from the school.

1400: The Russian deputy prosecutor, Sergei Fridinsky, says that all 26 attackers have been eliminated although later reports indicate there were more than 30 militants, two of whom were captured alive.

1530: In a televised address to the nation, Mr Putin makes a rare and candid admission of Russia's weakness in the face of an "all-out war" by terrorists. He said Russians must mobilise against terrorism and promised wide-ranging reforms to toughen security forces and purge corruption. "We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten," he said.

1800: Authorities allow Beslan residents into the husk that was once Middle School No 1 to let people see for themselves what remained.

Sunday September 5

· Official death toll rises to 335 after some of the injured die in hospital. The health ministry says only 207 of the dead have been formally identified. Some 700 people are injured, including 184 children, and 386 remain in hospital; 58 people are said to be in a critical condition.

· One unnamed militant, escorted by masked soldiers, is shown on television shouting in Russian: "By Allah, I have not shot. By Allah, I have not killed."

· The first of the funerals begin as hundreds of families continue to search for their children and relatives.

Monday September 6

· Some 100 funerals take place in Beslan.

· It emerges that the region's top police officer, Kazbek Dzantiyev, has tendered his resignation. "After what happened in Beslan, I don't have the right to occupy this post as an officer and a man," he says.

· The unnamed militant shown on television is charged with "personal participation" in the siege. Although 35 hostage-takers are believed to have been killed in the 10 hours of fighting that followed the end of the siege, deputy prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky says he believes that 32 terrorists had been involved and that two remained alive and in custody.