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PARIS (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights has agreed to rule in a case brought by nearly 400 survivors and family members of victims of a school hostage-taking in southern Russia in 2004 that left more than 300 dead.
The survivors and family members argue that the state failed to protect victims in Beslan, and that there wasn't an effective investigation into what happened. Some say disproportionate force by authorities led to many of the deaths.
The France-based court on Thursday rejected some complaints but accepted most of them, and said it will rule later.
Armed radical Islamic assailants seized the school on the first day of classes, prompting a long standoff that ended in explosions and gunfire. More than half of the hostages killed were children.
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