Some yet-to-be-identified gunmen opened fire at a rock concert in a Moscow suburb last night leaving no fewer than 40 people dead, and injuring at least 100, and setting off an inferno in the theatre, authorities said.
Attackers dressed in camouflage uniforms entered the building, opened fire, and threw a grenade or incendiary bomb, according to a journalist for the RIA Novosti news agency at the scene.
The fire quickly spread through the Crocus City concert hall in the Krasnogorsk suburb in the north of the Russian capital, which can hold several thousand people and has hosted top international artists.
“According to preliminary information, 40 people were killed and more than 100 were injured as a result of a terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall,” according to the FSB security service, quoted by Interfax news agency and other Russian media.
Authorities said a “terrorist” investigation had been started and President Vladimir Putin was receiving “constant” updates on the attack, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Telegram news channels Baza and Mash, which are close to security forces, showed video images of flames and black smoke pouring from the hall.
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Other images showed two men walking through the hall with at least one person left on the ground near the entrance. Concert-goers were also seen hiding behind seats or trying to escape.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there had been a “terrible tragedy” at the concert by Russian rock band Piknik and cancelled all public events in the city for the weekend.
Security services quoted by Interfax news agency said between two and five people “wearing tactical uniforms and carrying automatic weapons” opened fire on guards at the entrance and then started shooting at the audience.
“People who were in the hall were led on the ground to protect themselves from the shooting for 15 or 20 minutes,” the RIA Novosti journalist was quoted as saying.
People started crawling out when it was safe, the journalist reported.
About 100 people escaped through the theatre basement while others were sheltering on the roof, the emergency services ministry said on its Telegram channel.
But about one third of the complex was ablaze, TASS news agency reported.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it had been a “bloody terrorist attack”.
“The whole international community must condemn this odious crime,” she said on Telegram.
The US presidency called the attack “terrible” but said there was no immediate sign of any link to the conflict in Ukraine.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Moscow and other Russian cities have been the targets of previous attacks by Islamist groups but there have also been incidents without any clear political motive.