Moscow Concert Hall Terrorist Attack: Live Updates and Details

2024-03-22 20:43:35

At least 40 people were killed and more than a hundred wounded on Friday in a shooting followed by a fire at a concert hall in a Moscow suburb, blamed by Russian authorities on a “bloody terrorist attack.” “The provisional toll of the terrorist attack perpetrated at the Crocus City Hall complex is currently 40 dead and more than one hundred injured,” indicated the security forces (FSB). Special units of the Russian National Guard [Rosgvardia] They operate at the site of the attack and are “searching” for its perpetrators, this organization added in the Telegram message.

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The Russian Foreign Ministry attributed the tragedy, which occurred in an auditorium in Krasnogorsk, a suburb on the northwest edge of the Russian capital, to “a bloody terrorist attack.”

READ ALSO: Russia calls on the international community to condemn the attack on the outskirts of Moscow

“The entire international community must condemn this heinous crime!” said Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, announced the cancellation of “all sporting, cultural” and public events during the weekend.

According to a reporter from the Russian agency Ria Novosti, people in camouflage uniforms burst into the room and opened fire before throwing “a grenade or an incendiary bomb, causing a fire.”

“The people who were in the room fell to the floor to protect themselves from the gunshots for 15 or 20 minutes” and many managed to “crawl out,” he said.

The rescue services reported a “group of two to five unidentified people, with combat uniforms and automatic weapons”, who “opened fire on the security agents at the entrance to the concert hall”, before “starting to shoot at the public.”

The Crocus City Hall concert hall on fire following the shooting in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, on March 22, 2024. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP).

According to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, firefighters managed to evacuate about a hundred people who were in the basement.

There are also operations underway to “save people who are on the roof of the building,” he explained.

The assault occurred during a concert by the Russian rock group Piknik, whose members were evacuated, according to the TASS agency.

A view shows the Crocus City Hall concert hall on fire following the shooting in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, on March 22, 2024. (Photo by Sergei VEDYASHKIN / Moskva News Agency / AFP).

Ukraine denies any involvement

Russian President Vladimir Putin is being informed of the attack in real time, said his spokesman, Dmitri Peskov.

The current affairs networks Baza and Mash, close to the security forces on Telegram, published videos in which at least two armed men are seen advancing through the lobby of the complex. In different sequences, corpses and groups of people are seen rushing towards the exit.

Other images show spectators hiding behind seats or evacuating the room.

The United States conveyed its condolences to the victims of the “terrible” shooting. “The images are simply horrifying and hard to see,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

The European Union said it was “shocked and dismayed” by the massacre and indicated that it “condemns all attacks against civilians,” said its spokesman, Peter Stano.

Ukraine, faced with a Russian military intervention since 2022, assured that it had “absolutely nothing to do” with the attack.

The “Russian Freedom Legion,” a group of Russian anti-government fighters based in Ukraine, also denied any involvement.

Russian police officers guard the area near the burning Crocus City Hall concert hall after a shooting in Krasnogorsk, on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia, on March 22, 2024. (EFE/EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV).

In recent days, this group has carried out armed incursions into Russian border regions, which were also targets of bombings.

The Ukrainian military intelligence services, for their part, accused the Kremlin itself and its special services of being behind the aggression.

The “objective is to justify even more powerful bombings against Ukraine and total mobilization in Russia,” they said.

Former Russian President Dmiti Medvedev, number two on the Security Council, threatened to “destroy” the Ukrainian leaders if it is proven that they were involved in the lethal attack.

Two weeks ago, the United States embassy in Russia had warned its citizens of “imminent” plans by “extremists” to “attack large gatherings in Moscow, including concerts.”

Russia has already been the target of numerous attacks, committed by Islamist groups, and of shootings without political motives or attributed to unbalanced individuals.

In 2002, a group of Chechen fighters took 912 people hostage in the Moscow theater of Dubrovka to demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.

That hostage taking ended with an intervention by the special forces and the death of 130 people, almost all of them asphyxiated by the gas used by the military.

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