The Beslan school siege started on 1 September 2004, lasted three days, involved the imprisonment of more than 1,100 people as hostages (including 777 children), and ended with the deaths of either 331 or 334 people, over half of whom were children. It is thought to be the deadliest school shooting in modern history.

The crisis began when a group of armed Chechen separatists occupied School Number One in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia (an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation)...*

*Source: Wikipedia