When Soslan Gusiev heard the first shouts on September 1, he thought they were part of a back-to-school celebration.

But soon – when a father was shot, and terrorists pushed students, teachers, and parents over broken glass into his Beslan school – he realized it was no celebration.

Yesterday, the 16-year-old Russian student who heroically rescued other children from the terrorist siege that left over 330 dead talked to The New York Sun about his experience and what others can learn from it. The main lesson, he said, is that “you have to fight terrorists.”

Soslan is in New York this week representing his community at “Russian Splendor,” a concert at Lincoln Center that will benefit the victims of last month’s terrorist attack. Through a translator, Soslan said once he was pushed inside the school, the 32 terrorists forced him and the other hostages to put their heads down and stay still.

“We weren’t allowed to get up, to look up, to move,” he said.

He said his top priority was finding and protecting his 13-year-old brother. Soslan found his brother the following day, and the two whispered about whether they’d ever see their parents again. On their third day trapped inside the school with no food or water, Soslan knew something bad was brewing. He covered his brother with a rug, piled shoes on top of that, and then lay his own body over the mound for added protection.

His fears were well founded. There was an explosion soon afterwards.

Quickly, Soslan picked up his brother and rushed him to a window to try to help him escape. As he pushed his brother out of the shoulder height window, he felt someone else’s blood covering his legs.

“Everything was covered with pieces of human body,” he said.

All Soslan wanted to do was escape, but as he was about to jump out of the window to safety, he looked back and saw smaller children who couldn’t get out on their own. He went back into the bloody, exploding school to help them out. He thinks he hoisted at least eight of them through the window before he escaped himself.

Soslan suffered burns and a concussion. He has shrapnel lodged behind his ear and he is still having nightmares. His little brother is being treated for a concussion in a Moscow hospital and he has many friends who were injured and killed.

But yesterday, standing outside the Empire State Building before his first trip to the top of a building higher than five stories, he said he’d it all again if he had to. Soslan also said he doesn’t consider himself a hero.

The producer of Russian Splendor, Bernard Furshpan, whose parents emigrated here from Russia, said, “I don’t think he realizes how heroic it was. For most people in that situation, the first thing you would think is to run out. He did just the opposite. Just that alone is quite brave…to make that decision in an instant.”