Commemoration Ceremony For Beslan Terror Attack Victims Takes Place In Paris

PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd September, 2019) A commemoration ceremony to pay homage to the victims of the 2004 terror attack on a school in Russia's city of Beslan has taken place in Paris on Monday, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

Participants of the event gathered in the Russian Orthodox Spiritual and Cultural Center in Paris and observed a minute of silence for the victims of the attack. They also paid tribute to those killed in terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015 and in Nice in 2016.�

The commemoration ceremony brought together residents of Paris, diplomats from the Russian Embassy in France, a deputy mayor of the VII arrondissement of Paris, President of France's Solidarite enfants de Beslan Henri Paul Falavigna and French politician Florian Philippot.

Adviser-Envoy of the Russian Embassy in France Mikhail Savva said, addressing the event, that the struggle against terrorism should be conducted by all the nations, and the cooperation of the whole international community was needed.

"We can state today that the problem of international terrorism has become one of the most serious problems of our time ... All countries of the world realize that the fight against terrorism in modern conditions must be carried out in cooperation, this fight requires joint efforts of states, peoples and civil societies, that is, the entire world community," Savva stressed.

The terror attack on the school in Beslan happened on September 1, 2004. Over 30 terrorists seized the school early in the morning, when the children gathered in the yard to mark the start of the school year. The perpetrators forced the schoolchildren and their families, a total of more than a thousand people, into the school gym. The victims were held hostage there for three days, without food or water. Overall, the attack claimed lives of 334 people, including 318 hostages, 186 of whom were children.