Kaspiysk, Russia, November 17, 2014
The mourning events to commemorate the 1996 tragedy victims were held in the town Kaspiysk in Dagestan (an autonomous republic in Southwestern Russia, on the western shore of the Caspian Sea) on November 16, 2014, reports Patriarchia.ru.
On this day 18 years ago a 9-storied apartment house was blown up on Lenin Street of Kaspiysk. As a result of the terrorist attack 106 people were trapped under the debris of the house; 69 of them, including 20 children, died.
Head of the town administration Khuri Pirsaidova, heads of the town enterprises and organizations, servicemen, law-enforcement agencies’ officers, representatives of the public, schoolchildren, and those not indifferent to the tragedy came to commemorate the innocent victims.
With the blessing of Bishop Varlaam of Makhachkala and Grozny Hieromonk John (Anisimov), the Makhachkala Diocese’s secretary, Rector of the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Kaspiysk, took part in the mourning ceremony.
After a minute of silence, names of the victims were read out and white balloons were released into the sky as a symbol of their memory. Then flowers were placed at the obelisk.
A service for the commemoration of the terrorist act victims was celebrated at the Church of the Kazan Icon on this day.