At least 40 killed and over 100 wounded in Russia following a terror attack at Moscow concert hall
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Blasts rock Moscow concert hall as gunmen open fire at people in suspected terror attack in Russia
Blasts rock Moscow concert hall as gunmen open fire at people in suspected terror attack in Russia.
At least 40 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a “terrorist attack” at the Crocus City Hall shopping mall and concert complex, northwest of Moscow, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on Friday.
According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, about 100 people have been escorted to safety by firefighters.
“Fire and rescue units are operating … Their main efforts are aimed at search and rescue. Firefighters evacuated about 100 people from the basement of the building. Work is underway to rescue others from the roof using lifts,” the ministry’s message says.
According to local media, up to 6,200 people could have been in the building when the shooting started as the scheduled concert was sold out.
People built makeshift barricades and tried to break out through the windows to escape the shooting scene, eyewitnesses have told the press.
The death toll is expected to grow, given the scale of the attack and inferno that has engulfed the mall.
As many as five gunmen dressed in camouflage clothing opened fire with automatic weapons at people in the Crocus City Hall music venue near Moscow, leaving an unknown number of people dead and injured.
Russian news reports said the assailants also used explosives, causing a massive blaze at the Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow on Friday.
A video posted on social media showed huge plumes of black smoke rising over the building.
A journalist for the RIA Novosti news agency who was at the scene said the gunmen opened automatic fire and threw a grenade or incendiary bomb.
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“People who were in the hall were led on the ground to protect themselves from the shooting for 15 or 20 minutes,” the journalist was quoted as saying.
People started crawling out when it was safe, the journalist reported, adding that security forces were at the scene.
Russia’s Ombudsman, Moskalkova, called the shooting an “act of terrorism”, according to RIA Novosti, while Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the cancellation of all public events planned this weekend in the Russian capital.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the international community to condemn the incident, calling it “a monstrous crime.”
The White House said that the images of shooting in the Russian capital were “horrible and just hard to watch.”
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