Thousands of mourners carrying red carnations and roses filed into the gutted gymnasium of Beslan's School No 1 and fanned out across the town's crowded cemetery Thursday, gathering to commemorate the anniversary of the hostage tragedy that claimed 331 lives.

Policemen lined the streets of the small town in the southern Russian region of North Ossetia, and mourners had to go through metal detectors to reach the schoolyard. As Russian Orthodox priests in flowing black robes chanted prayers, some mourners leaned down to place thin wax candles and stuffed animals on the remnants of the gymnasium walls.

Waves of sobs could be heard inside the gymnasium, where more than 1,100 hostages had been forced to sit amid bombs rigged around the hall, enduring thirst, hunger and terror.

People walked slowly along the periphery, stopping to examine large portraits of the victims more than half of them children that were hanging on the walls, as the morning sun peeked through the shattered roof. Many covered their faces in grief; others shook raised fists at the photos, as if pleading with the dead.

"Today, millions of people both here and abroad, all who know about this terrible catastrophe and who have a heart, of course remember this nightmare," Russian President Vladimir Putin said, speaking at the Kuban State Agriculture University.

"Let you and I, too, refrain from saying words that are perhaps correct but superfluous, and simply be quiet for a few seconds. Let us remember the children, those who perished, who suffered at the hands of terrorists."

Source: China Daily