Gunmen Kill More Than 60 In Concert Near Moscow

ISIS claimed responsibility for a deadly gun attack on Crocus City Hall concert center near Moscow on Friday, which Russian authorities said killed at least 40 people and injured more than 146. ISIS fighters “attacked a large gathering... on the outskirts of the Russian capital Moscow,” the group said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. Firefighting crews contained the major fire that spread through the theater after gunmen started shooting at a rock concert in a Moscow suburb, Moscow’s mayor and Russian news agencies earlier reported.

Attackers dressed in camouflaged outfits entered the building, opened fire and threw a grenade or incendiary bomb, according to a journalist for the RIA Novosti news agency who was at the scene. Russia’s foreign ministry had called the incident a “terrorist attack” that had to be condemned.

Fire quickly spread through the Crocus City Hall, north of the Russian capital, where the theatre can hold several thousand people and has staged several concerts by top international artists, according to initial reports. Automatic gunfire was used on the audience, the RIA Novosti journalist reported.

“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.

About 100 people escaped through the theatre basement while others were sheltering on the roof, the emergency services ministry had said on its Telegram channel.

Telegram news channels Baza and Mash, which are close to security forces, showed video images of flames and black smoke pouring from the concert hall. Other images showed two men walking through the hall with at least one person left on the ground near the entrance. Spectators were also seen hiding behind seats or trying to escape.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also earlier said it had been a “terrorist attack.” “The whole international community must condemn this odious crime,” she said on Telegram.

“I offer my condolences to the families of the dead,” said Moscow’s mayor as a major security operation was launched around the theatre and nearby shopping mall.

Sobyanin said he had cancelled all public events in Moscow for the weekend.

TASS news agency said that SOBR and special police forces and the OMON anti-riot squad had been sent to the Crocus hall. It added that all the members of the rock band had been evacuated safely.

Orthodox church leader Patriarch Kirill was “praying for peace for the souls of the dead,” said his spokesman Vladimir Legoyda.

Russia urges US to share information

Russia earlier said on Friday that if the United States knew for sure that Ukraine was not involved in a mass shooting incident at a concert hall near Moscow Washington should share any information it had.

White House spokesperson John Kirby had said that there was “no indication at this time that Ukraine, Ukrainians were involved.”

“The White House said it sees no signs that Ukraine or Ukrainians are involved in the terrorist attack in Moscow,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier said.

“On what basis do officials in Washington draw any conclusions in the midst of a tragedy about someone’s innocence?”

She said that if Washington had information, it should be shared and that if Washington had no information, it should not be talking in such a way.

Ukraine’s response

The main intelligence directorate of the Ukrainian defense ministry, before ISIS claimed the attack, accused Russian secret services of planning the deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said that Kyiv had nothing to do with Friday’s attack.

“Let’s be straight about this: Ukraine had absolutely nothing to do with these events,” Podolyak said in a video message posted on Telegram.

“We have a full-scale, all-out war with the Russian regular army and with the Russian Federation as a country. And regardless of everything, everything will be decided on the battlefield,” Podolyak said.

Previous warnings

Moscow and other Russian cities have been the targets of previous attacks by extremist groups but there have also been incidents without any clear political motive. Earlier this month, the US embassy in Russia warned “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow”, including concerts. In 2002, Chechen separatist fighters took 912 people hostage in a Moscow theatre, the Dubrovka, demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from the region.

Special forces attacked the theatre to end the hostage taking and 130 people were killed, nearly all suffocated by a gas used by security forces to knock out the gunmen. Russia launched a military intervention in Ukraine in February 2022 and it has been the target of attacks along the border by anti-Kremlin forces._Alarabiya News