A new primary school built to replace that destroyed in the Beslan school hostage massacre last year has been robbed, with thieves stealing computers, printers and televisions worth around €5 000 ($6 200), officials said on Monday.
The robbers ransacked several rooms in the school, where new equipment was being placed in preparation for the first day of classes next month, an interior ministry source in the Russian republic of North Ossetia said, speaking on condition he not be named.
Local residents expressed outrage on hearing news of the robbery and the newly installed president of North Ossetia, Timuraz Mamsurov, convened a special meeting of the republic’s government to ensure everything possible was being done to catch the culprits.
”The top interior ministry specialists are involved in the investigation, which is being conducted with the help of the FSB” security services, the source said.
The robbery came three weeks before the one-year anniversary of the start of the three-day hostage ordeal that began on September 1, 2004 — the first day of the Russian school year — when Chechen rebels took more than 1 000 people captive in a Beslan primary school.
The standoff erupted in violence for reasons that remain unclear, resulting in the deaths of 318 civilians, including 186 schoolchildren. Twelve Russian servicemen and 31 hostage takers also died.
Meanwhile, North Ossetian police announced that sappers and teams of sniffer dogs would conduct security sweeps through state schools in the republic before the start of the new school year.
”Sappers and sniffer dogs will check that no weapons have been hidden in schools during the summer recess,” RIA-Novosti news agency quoted police spokesperson Alan Doyev as saying. – Sapa-AFP