The Crocus City Hall concert hall is currently on fire following an attack, with deaths reported.
Several people died in a shooting followed by a huge fire Friday evening at a concert hall in the suburbs of Moscow, authorities and media reported. The facts, the exact nature of which remains to be clarified, took place at Crocus City Halla concert hall located in Krasnogorsk, a suburb just outside the northwest exit of the Russian capital.
The spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova denounced a “bloody terrorist attack” and a “monstrous crime”. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the cancellation of all public events.
“Unknown persons opened fire at Crocus City Hall. The evacuation of people is underway,” the emergency services told the public agency TASS. The Ria Novosti agency reported “wounded” after “automatic weapon fire”, quoting its journalist on site. According to this journalist, people in camouflage clothing burst onto the floor of the room 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 began to crawl out. Many managed to get out,” said this Ria Novosti journalist, according to whom “there are injured, that’s for sure.” According to him, members of the police arrived on the scene. The TASS agency reported earlier that the police rapid intervention unit SOBR and the riot police OMON had been “put on alert and were heading towards the site”.
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 large plumes of black smoke and flames escaping from the building housing the concert hall, as well as images showing two armed men advancing down the hall, with at least one man visible on the ground near the entrance.
Other images show spectators hiding behind seats or evacuating the concert hall.
Photo via 20minutes/AFP
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