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.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Michael: Man shot wife 'had hired hit-man'
By Arifa Akbar
Thursday, 30 September 2004
An abusive husband who shot his wife dead as she hid in a cupboard wrote a suicide note saying he had hired a hit-man to kill her in case he failed, an inquest was told yesterday.
Alan Pemberton punched his estranged wife Julia in the mouth after calling her a "fucking whore" and shot her four times at close range with a 12-bore shotgun. Moments earlier, Mr Pemberton, 48, had killed their 17-year-old son, William, outside their £1m mansion in Hermitage, Berkshire. He later turned the gun on himself. Mrs Pemberton's terror during her last moments were recorded in a desperate 16-minute 999 phone call.
The inquest at Reading civic centre heard the millionaire financial adviser was obsessed with taking revenge on his 47-year-old wife for trying to divorce him and accusing him of raping her.
Detective Inspector Steven Reschwamm, the investigating officer, said an undated note in which he admitted having a contract out on his wife was found in a black briefcase in Mr Pemberton's BMW, parked nearby on 18 November 2003, the day of the killings. The note read: "I have paid a substantial amount of cash to have her killed if I fail myself."
He also wrote that he wanted Mrs Pemberton to tell their son that the allegations of sexual abuse were untrue. "I hated to think that I died with my children thinking I had raped their mother. My anger for what she has done and the callous way in which she has done it left me with no alternative but to take my revenge."
Det Insp Reschwamm said Thames Valley Police had found no evidence that Mr Pemberton had paid a hit-man but it was clear "he had been prepared to do this for some time".
John Cownley, a family friend, had earlier testified that Mr Pemberton was a "proud father" but added that he was stressed by a legal battle with a business partner and his wife's allegations of sexual abuse. He spoke of Mrs Pemberton's fear that her husband would kill her: "She did say on a number of occasions, 'if Alan kills himself, he'll kill me first'."
The inquest heard how Mrs Pemberton had suffered years of abuse by her husband, who had threatened to kill her. On the evening of her death, she phoned 999 at 7.11pm. Officers arrived nearly 40 minutes later at 7.50pm, after some difficulty in locating the house.
Peter Bedford, the Berkshire coroner, described Mr Pemberton's "desperation" and "callousness" as he recorded a verdict of unlawful killing. He exonerated Thames Valley Police of blame.
The couple's daughter, Laura Pemberton, 20, who was away at Cambridge University when the killings took place, said afterwards in a written statement: "As you can imagine, it has been a very difficult time for me since the tragic loss of my family last November. Now that the inquest is over I would like to try to get on with my life. I am very grateful to everyone who has supported me through the past months, especially my family and friends."
Mrs Pemberton's brother, Frank Mullane, called William "a hero" for attempting to save his mother's life. "William took it on himself to stand before his father. He took two shots at point-blank range on the porch. It appears he then went round the side of the house to call his father back whilst bearing these wounds," he said.
He criticised shortcomings in Thames Valley Police's domestic violence policy and said he had not had an "adequate answer" as to why police waited nearly seven hours to enter the house at 1.53am the following day.
Found this article as remembered hearing about this story when younger... the man decided to kill his family but his daughter was able to live as she was studying away at university... but it mentions 'proud father' which has been used alot in these types of stories...
Thursday, 30 September 2004
An abusive husband who shot his wife dead as she hid in a cupboard wrote a suicide note saying he had hired a hit-man to kill her in case he failed, an inquest was told yesterday.
Alan Pemberton punched his estranged wife Julia in the mouth after calling her a "fucking whore" and shot her four times at close range with a 12-bore shotgun. Moments earlier, Mr Pemberton, 48, had killed their 17-year-old son, William, outside their £1m mansion in Hermitage, Berkshire. He later turned the gun on himself. Mrs Pemberton's terror during her last moments were recorded in a desperate 16-minute 999 phone call.
The inquest at Reading civic centre heard the millionaire financial adviser was obsessed with taking revenge on his 47-year-old wife for trying to divorce him and accusing him of raping her.
Detective Inspector Steven Reschwamm, the investigating officer, said an undated note in which he admitted having a contract out on his wife was found in a black briefcase in Mr Pemberton's BMW, parked nearby on 18 November 2003, the day of the killings. The note read: "I have paid a substantial amount of cash to have her killed if I fail myself."
He also wrote that he wanted Mrs Pemberton to tell their son that the allegations of sexual abuse were untrue. "I hated to think that I died with my children thinking I had raped their mother. My anger for what she has done and the callous way in which she has done it left me with no alternative but to take my revenge."
Det Insp Reschwamm said Thames Valley Police had found no evidence that Mr Pemberton had paid a hit-man but it was clear "he had been prepared to do this for some time".
John Cownley, a family friend, had earlier testified that Mr Pemberton was a "proud father" but added that he was stressed by a legal battle with a business partner and his wife's allegations of sexual abuse. He spoke of Mrs Pemberton's fear that her husband would kill her: "She did say on a number of occasions, 'if Alan kills himself, he'll kill me first'."
The inquest heard how Mrs Pemberton had suffered years of abuse by her husband, who had threatened to kill her. On the evening of her death, she phoned 999 at 7.11pm. Officers arrived nearly 40 minutes later at 7.50pm, after some difficulty in locating the house.
Peter Bedford, the Berkshire coroner, described Mr Pemberton's "desperation" and "callousness" as he recorded a verdict of unlawful killing. He exonerated Thames Valley Police of blame.
The couple's daughter, Laura Pemberton, 20, who was away at Cambridge University when the killings took place, said afterwards in a written statement: "As you can imagine, it has been a very difficult time for me since the tragic loss of my family last November. Now that the inquest is over I would like to try to get on with my life. I am very grateful to everyone who has supported me through the past months, especially my family and friends."
Mrs Pemberton's brother, Frank Mullane, called William "a hero" for attempting to save his mother's life. "William took it on himself to stand before his father. He took two shots at point-blank range on the porch. It appears he then went round the side of the house to call his father back whilst bearing these wounds," he said.
He criticised shortcomings in Thames Valley Police's domestic violence policy and said he had not had an "adequate answer" as to why police waited nearly seven hours to enter the house at 1.53am the following day.
Found this article as remembered hearing about this story when younger... the man decided to kill his family but his daughter was able to live as she was studying away at university... but it mentions 'proud father' which has been used alot in these types of stories...
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