VLADIKAVKAZ. September 2. KAZINFORM As children across Russia are preparing to return to school on Wednesday to start a new academic year, September the 1st will always be a day of grief and mourning in the North Ossetian city of Beslan; Kazinform refers to ITAR-TASS.

On September 1, 2004 a group of terrorists seized city school No. 1 and took 1,200 children, teachers and parents hostage. The terrorists kept them in a school gym for three days, denying them food and drink. As a result, 336 hostages, including 186 children, died.

Three-day events are beginning in Beslan on Wednesday to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the school siege. A memorial ceremony will start in the courtyard of the semi-ruined school No.1 at 9:00 sharp. A school bell will ring at 9:15 to remind everybody of the events of six years ago when terrorists began the seizure of the school building.

At least 5,000 people are expected to visit the schoolyard on September 1. The North Ossetian leader Taimuraz Mamsurov, Speaker of the regional Legislative Assembly Larisa Khabitsova, government members and parliament deputies will also visit the tragedy's site.

On Wednesday evening, children will light up candles in the schoolyard to commemorate the killed hostages and those who later died of wounds.

On September 2, a Holy Cross will be installed and consecrated in the territory of the school. A requiem concert will be held outdoors near the Beslan Palace of Culture on Thursday evening. Well-known artists and musicians from North Ossetia, including children, will read poems and sing songs about the Beslan tragedy.

As a rule, the main events will be held on the third day, on September 3. Father Vasily, the head of Orthodox Churches in North Ossetia, will lead a funeral service in the school gym at 11:30. At 13:05, two bells will ring and a minute of silence will be observed. The school pupils will release 336 white balloons into the air in memory of their classmates, teachers and parents who accompanied their children to school six years ago and were taken hostage together with their kids.

After that, a minute of silence will be observed in the City of Angels, a children's memorial cemetery in Beslan. The names of all the victims will be read out against the ticking of a metronome. In the evening, slides will be shown in the courtyard of school No.1.

About 20,000 people are expected to take part in commemorative events on September 3; Kazinform cites ITAR-TASS.

See www.itar-tass.com/eng for full version