Hostages: Dramatic Accounts of Real Life Events - Tapa blanda

Many of us remember where we were on 1st September 2004 when a group of terrorists disguised as repairmen infiltrated a school in Beslan, Russia. Using concealed weapons they took more than 1,100 children and adults hostage. The world looked on aghast as the siege played out on our television screens over the next three days. On the third and final day, a violent gun battle broke out between the hostage takers and Russian security forces. A number of people were killed on both sides, but the carnage did not stop there. In the panic of the shoot out, the terrorists set off explosions, bringing large sections of the buildling crashing down on their innocent victims. A total of 323 people lost their lives in the tragedy - including 156 children. HOSTAGES tells the incredible and often harrowing stories surrounding real-life events like the Munich massacre of 1972, the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 and the bloody siege at the Davidian Ranch, Waco, Texas in 1993.

Gordon Kerr has worked at Waterstone's and Bloomsbury and is now a freelance writer and journalist.