Moscow Concert Hall Attack Is One Of The Worst Attack In Russia In Recent Times
On Friday, at least 115 people have been killed and more than 100 others injured in Moscow concert hall attack after gunmen opened fire and set off explosives at a concert hall on the western edge of Moscow.
Moscow Concert Hall Attack
Photo Courtsey: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
The attack, which was the deadliest in Russia in years, came just days after Putin cemented his command on power in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide and as the country’s war in Ukraine dragged into a third year.
The attack began on Friday evening just as people were taking their seats for a sold-out show by Picnic, a popular rock band from the Soviet era.
As many as five men in combat fatigues entered the concert hall and opened fire on those inside. Dave Primov, who was in the hall during the attack, described chaotic scenes.
“There were volleys of gunfire,” Primov told The Associated Press news agency. “We all got up and tried to move toward the aisles. People began to panic, started to run and collided with each other. Some fell down and others trampled on them.”
Moscow Concert Hall Attack
The attackers also set off explosives that ignited a huge blaze that at one point covered as much as 12,900 square metres (139,000sq ft), according to Russian news agency Interfax.
Graphic videos posted on social media showed the gunmen firing repeatedly as they entered the building, and shooting people at point-blank range.
Another video showed a man in the auditorium saying the attackers had set it on fire.
Helicopters were brought in to douse the flames from the air, as firefighters battled the blaze from the ground. The fire was eventually brought under control early on Saturday.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said firefighters helped about 100 people escape through the building’s basement, while rescue operations were also launched for people trapped on the roof.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that authorities have detained 11 people in the attack on a suburban Moscow concern hall that killed at least 115 people and left the sprawling venue a smoldering ruin.
In an address to the nation, Putin called it “a bloody, barbaric terrorist act” and said all four people who were directly involved had been taken into custody. He suggested they had been trying to cross the border into Ukraine which, he said, tried to create a “window” to help them escape.
Ukraine has strongly denied any involvement in the attack. “Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield.”
Ukraine’s foreign ministry also denied that the country had any involvement and accused Moscow of using the attack to try to stoke fervor for its war efforts.
Despite Russia’s international isolation over the war in Ukraine, adversaries of the Kremlin joined its allies in condemning the concert hall massacre on Friday and calling for accountability.
Statements of condolence and outrage came from around the world, including from China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and from the U.S Government.
Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, called the attack an act of terrorism that his government “condemns in the strongest terms. “Nothing can every justify such horrific violence,” he wrote on X, offering Britain’s “deepest sympathy.”
Germany’s Foreign Ministry called it “a horrific attack” that must be “investigated quickly.” The French Foreign Ministry said that “all effort has to be made to determine the causes of these heinous acts.”
The Islamic State group’s Afghanistan branch claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack in a statement posted on affiliated channels on social media. A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. agencies had confirmed that the group was responsible for the attack.
Russia said on Saturday it had arrested 11 people including four suspected gunmen. The FSB security service said “all four terrorists” had been arrested while heading to the Ukrainian border, and that they had contacts in Ukraine. It said they were being transferred to Moscow.
