Russian authorities failed to take sufficient steps to stop the 2004 Beslan school siege in North Ossetia in which more than 330 people were killed, the European court of human rights has ruled. The court said Russian authorities had received information that a terror attack was being planned and security at the school was not increased sufficiently. Chechen militants stormed the school on 1 September 2004, beginning a three-day hostage crisis involving more than 1,100 hostages. The death toll included 184 children.The authorities had been in possession of sufficiently specific information of a planned terrorist attack in the area, linked to an educational institution,” the court said in its judgment. “Nevertheless, not enough had been done to disrupt the terrorists meeting and preparing.”

It added that “insufficient steps had been taken to prevent them [the terrorists] travelling on the day of the attack; security at the school had not been increased; and neither the school nor the public had been warned of the threat”.

The court also ruled that Russian authorities breached European human rights laws when they stormed the school. A further 750 people were wounded when security forces – using “tank cannon, grenade launchers and flamethrowers”, the court said – moved in to free the hostages.(guardian)…[+]