Beslan tragedy. The Beslan school # 1 where massacre took place on September 3rd 2004. pictured: soldiers rescuing victims of the seige. The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan massacre)of early September 2004 was a three-day hostage-taking of over 1,100 people which ended in the deaths of over 380. It began when a group of armed mostly Ingush and Chechen Islamic militants took more than 1,100 people (including 777 children) hostage on 1 September, at School Number One in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia