September 1, 2004 , a 3-day siege began at a school in Beslan, Russia:

Stepping through the blackened shell of Beslan School No. 1, thousands of people were shown on television as they carried roses and candles into the gymnasium where more than 1,000 hostages were herded on the first day of school last year. Portraits of the dead, 186 of them children, were displayed on the red-brick walls, and mourners leaned their heads against the pictures and sobbed and prayed.

But the anguish was accompanied by rancor because the survivors blame their government, and sometimes each other, for the high death toll in the country’s worst terrorist act. Russian President Vladimir Putin stayed away after some relatives of the dead said he was not welcome.