(Moscow) Several people died in a shooting followed by a huge fire Friday evening in a concert hall in the suburbs of Moscow where several armed men entered, according to the authorities who denounce “a bloody terrorist attack”.
“There are deaths and injuries following the attack at GCrocus city Hall,” said the security services (FSB)
The spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova denounced a “bloody terrorist attack” and a “monstrous crime”. The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, announced the cancellation of all public events.
The attack by several armed individuals took place in the evening at Crocus City Hall, a concert hall located in Krasnogorsk, a suburb just outside the northwest of the Russian capital.
According to a journalist from the state news agency Ria Novosti, individuals in camouflage clothing burst onto the floor of the concert hall before opening fire and throwing “a grenade or an incendiary bomb, which caused a fire.
“The people in the room lay on the ground to protect themselves from the gunfire for 15 to 20 minutes, after which they started crawling out. Many managed to get out,” said this Ria Novosti journalist.
The emergency services, cited by the Interfax agency, reported a “group of two to five unidentified people wearing tactical uniforms and armed with automatic weapons” who “opened fire on security agents at the entrance to the concert hall” then “started shooting at the audience”.
According to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, firefighters managed to evacuate around a hundred people who were in the basement of the concert hall. Operations are underway to “rescue people from the roof of the building using lifting equipment”.
Armed men
According to the TASS news agency, about a third of the building is on fire. Videos posted on social media showed the roof of the building on fire, with large plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky.
Law enforcement officers are also on site, according to Russian agencies. This attack occurred during a concert by the Russian rock band Piknik, whose members were evacuated, TASS reported.
The Telegram news channels Baza and Mash, known to be close to the police, published videos showing at least two armed men advancing in the hall and others showing corpses and groups of people rushing towards the exit.
Other images show spectators hiding behind seats or evacuating the concert hall.
The spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, denounced on Telegram a “bloody terrorist attack”, calling on the international community to “condemn this heinous crime”.
The White House is “in thoughts with the victims of the terrible attack,” a spokesperson said on Friday.
He said he had “no indication at this stage that Ukraine or Ukrainians are involved”.
“I can’t give more details,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, saying the United States was seeking “more information.”
“I would advise against making a link with Ukraine at such an early stage,” he said, however.
“There are people in Moscow and Russia who disagree with the way (Russian President Vladimir) Putin governs, but I don’t think it’s possible to make a connection between the attack and political motives at the current stage,” he also said.
Russia has been the target of numerous attacks in the past committed by Islamist groups but also of shootings without political motives or attributed to unbalanced people.
In 2002, Chechen fighters took 912 people hostage in the Moscow theater of Dubrovka to demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
The hostage-taking ended with an assault by special forces, and the death of 130 people, almost all of them asphyxiated by the gas used by the police.
This attack also comes as Russia has been carrying out an assault on its Ukrainian neighbor for two years and has been the target of attacks by Russian anti-Kremlin fighters for several days in the regions bordering Ukraine.