In 2004 , Chechen rebels took 40 children hostage at a school in Beslan , Russia . It is also their still unresolved bid to find out how negotiations failed and how such a bungled , bloody operation could ever have come to be . Hundreds of people were killed during the subsequent three - day siege and military operation . CNN 's Nick Paton Walsh covered the hostage crisis for The Guardian newspaper . Ten years on , he returns and finds victims of the crisis still have unanswered questions .
In 2004 , Chechen rebels took 40 children hostage at a school in Beslan , Russia . Hundreds of people were killed during the subsequent three - day siege and military operation . CNN 's Nick Paton Walsh covered the hostage crisis for The Guardian newspaper . Ten years on , he returns and finds victims of the crisis still have unanswered questions .