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Moscow terror attack: At least 40 people were killed while over 100 were injured after several terrorists broke into a large concert hall in Russia’s Moscow on Friday (March 22) and sprayed the people with gunfire. They set the venue on fire in a brazen attack days after Vladimir Putin returned as the President in a landslide victory, according to news agency AP. Islamic State, the terrorist group that once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack, news agency Reuters reported quoting the group’s Amaq agency.
There was an encounter between the security forces of Russia and the terrorists. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that his country did not have a hand in the attack.
It was not, however, clear what happened to the terrorists after the attack. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the attack as a “huge tragedy” and the state authorities started an investigation as terrorism. The attack took place as the crowd gathered for a performance by the Russian rock band Picnic. The terrorists threw explosives into the hall after which a blaze erupted, trapping several people.
New bodies of the dead were found in toilets, feeding rooms and rooms where cleaners stored inventory. People were hiding from the shooting, but suffocated due to smoke. There are no wounds on their bodies.
The attack left the concert hall in flames with a collapsing roof and was the deadliest in Russia in several years. This comes as the country’s war in Ukraine dragged into a third year.
The Kremlin said that Putin was informed about the raid minutes after the assailants burst into the Crocus City Hall, a large music venue on Moscow’s western edge that can accommodate 6,200 people.
Earlier, the health authorities released a list of 145 injured out of which 115 were hospitalised, including five children. Video from outside showed the building on fire, with a huge cloud of smoke rising through the night sky.
How did the attack take place?
The street was lit up by the blinking blue lights of dozens of firetrucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles, as several fire helicopters buzzed overhead to dump water on the blaze that took hours to contain. The prosecutor’s office said several men in combat fatigues entered the concert hall and fired on concertgoers.
Repeated volleys of gunfire could be heard in videos posted by Russian media and on Telegram channels. One showed two men with rifles moving through the venue. Another showed a man inside the auditorium saying the assailants had set it on fire, as gunshots rang out incessantly in the background.
Other videos showed up to four attackers, armed with assault rifles and wearing caps, shooting screaming people at point-blank range. Guards at the concert hall didn’t have guns, and some could have been killed at the start of the attack, Russian media reported.
According to some Russian news outlets, the terrorists had fled before special forces and riot police arrived. The reports said that the police teams were looking for several vehicles that the terrorists could have used to escape.
What did the Islamic State group say?
The Islamic State group released a statement, posted by its Aamaq news agency, and said that it attacked a large gathering in Krasnogorsk on Moscow’s outskirts, killing and wounding hundreds.
Earlier this month, Russia’s top security agency said it thwarted an attack on a synagogue in Moscow by a cell of the Islamic State group. Russian authorities also said that six alleged IS members were killed in Ingushetia in Russia’s volatile Caucasus region.
US reacts
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said on Friday that he couldn’t yet speak about all the details but that “the images are just horrible. And just hard to watch.”
“Our thoughts are going to be with the victims of this terrible, terrible shooting attack. There are some moms and dads and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters who haven’t gotten the news yet. This is going to be a tough day,” Kirby said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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