The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan Massacre) began when armed Chechen terrorists took more than 1200 school children and adults hostage on 1 September 2004, at School Number One (SNO) in the Russian town of Beslan in North Ossetia. Timeline All times in local Moscow Time Zone, UTC+3. Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:00 AM: Day of Knowledge, festivities mark the beginning of the school year when new pupils are welcomed. 9:30 AM: School stormed by 32 heavily armed males, as well as two females wearing suicide bomb belts. During the initial confusion about 50 people manage to escape and raise the alarm. About 1,200 are taken hostage in the school gym. Eight people are killed during the storming. Ten male hostages are killed immediately afterwards. 10:00 AM: Attackers start mining the gym and other school buildings using improvised explosive devices packed with nuts, bolts and nails. Inside the gym the hostages are surrounded with tripwires and explosives are strung up over the hostages for maximum personnel damage. Hostage Ruslan Betrozov is shot after explaining the directions the terrorists gave them. 10:20 AM: President Vladimir Putin cancels vacation in Sochi and returns to Moscow. 10:26 AM: News agencies mistakenly state that two schools have been seized. Half an hour later it is corrected to only one school. 11:10 AM: Officials state that there are between 200–400 hostages and 15–20 terrorists. 11:15 AM: Hostage-takers force hostage children to stand exposed in the windows, acting as human shields. 11:30 AM: President of North Ossetia Alexander Dzasokhov arrives at SNO. 11:34 AM: North Ossetian borders are closed, and all flights to capital Vladikavkaz are cancelled. The military is ordered to protect kindergartens, schools, and other public buildings of North Ossetia. 11:50 AM: In a message delivered by a released hostage, the attackers threaten to kill 10 hostages if electricity or communication is cut, 20 hostages for every one of them wounded, 50 hostages for every killed, and to kill everybody if 5 attackers are killed. They also demand to negotiate with politicians Alexander Dzasokhov and Murat Zyazikov and noted pediatrician Leonid Roshal (later it turned out that an error had occurred and the terrorists demanded another political figure, Vladimir Rushailo instead of Roshal). 1:00 PM: Hostage-takers drop a note from one of the windows demanding that Russian forces withdraw from Chechnya. 1:25 PM: Hostage-takers refuse