A scene from the 1995 hostage crisis in Budyonnovsk in Stavropol Krai
On Monday, a Pannikhida was held in Budyonnovsk to honour the victims of a terrorist incident in 1995, when militants seized more than 2,000 people as hostages in a hospital, city authorities told RIA-Novosti on Tuesday. “Budyonnovsk will never forget this pain; it was a terrible tragedy for everyone. Many townspeople attended Pannikhidas in local parishes to honour the dead. There was a moment of silence throughout the town, then, we held a memorial [for the dead]”, a spokesman told us. On 14 June 1995, in Budyonnovsk in Stavropol Krai, armed men seized the hospital, demanding the cessation of hostilities in Chechnya, taking more than 2,000 people hostage. On the night of 17 June, troops recaptured the hospital, and the rebels retreated to the Chechen border, taking with them more than 200 hostages, mostly women and children. Not far from the village of Zandak in the mountains, the hostages were released. 130 civilians died in the storming of the hospital; more than 400 people were injured.
15 June 2010
RIA-Novosti
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