Beslan tragedy. The Beslan school # 1 where massacre took place on September 3rd 2004. Photos of the tragedy victims. 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