Law enforcement officers stand guard near the Crocus City Hall concert venue after a shooting incident near Moscow, Russia. A number of armed men wearing military uniform stormed a concert hall on March 22 and fired automatic weapons into the crowd, wounding an unspecified number of people.
Maxim Blinov/Sputnik via AFP
Several gunmen stormed a large concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday, firing into the crowds, killing at least 40 people, wounding more than 100 and setting the venue on fire in a daring attack just days after President Vladimir Putin. He consolidated his hold on power through a highly coordinated landslide election victory.
It was not immediately clear what happened to the attackers, and no group claimed responsibility for the raid, which Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described as a “huge tragedy” and which state authorities are investigating as an act of terrorism. The attack, which set the concert hall on fire and its roof collapsed, was the deadliest attack in Russia in years, and came as the war in Ukraine entered its third year.
Russia's Federal Security Service, the main agency for internal security and counter-terrorism, said 40 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the attack on Krokos City Hall, a large music hall on the western edge of Moscow.
The attackers threw explosives, causing a massive fire in the hall, which can accommodate 6,000 people, according to Russian media. Video from outside showed the building burning, with a huge cloud of smoke billowing into the night sky. The street was lit up with the flashing blue lights of dozens of fire engines, ambulances and other emergency vehicles.
An injured woman is taken into an ambulance near the Crocus City Hall concert venue after a shooting incident near Moscow, Russia. A number of armed men wearing military uniform stormed a concert hall on March 22 and fired automatic weapons into the crowd, wounding an unspecified number of people.
Maxim Blinov/Sputnik via AFP
The attack occurred while crowds were gathering to attend a performance by the famous Russian rock band Picnic. Russian news reports said concertgoers were evacuated, but an unknown number were likely trapped by the fire.
The Public Prosecutor's Office said that several men wearing military clothing entered the concert hall and opened fire on the attendees.
Repeated gunfire could be heard in videos published by Russian media and on Telegram channels. One of them showed two men carrying rifles moving around. Another clip showed a man inside the hall saying that the attackers had set it on fire, while the sounds of gunshots echoed endlessly in the background.
Other videos showed up to four attackers, armed with assault rifles and wearing hats, shooting screaming people at close range.
A view shows the burning concert hall at Crocus City Hall following a shooting incident in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, on March 22, 2024. Gunmen opened fire at a concert hall in a suburb of Moscow on March 22, 2024, leaving people dead and wounded before a major fire was reported by Moscow's mayor. Russian news agencies reported that explosions spread throughout the building.
stringer | AFP | Getty Images
Russian media reported that the guards in the concert hall did not have weapons, and some of them could have been killed at the beginning of the attack. It was not immediately clear what happened to the attackers, but some Russian media reported that they fled before the arrival of special forces and riot police.
Russian authorities said security measures had been tightened at Moscow's airports, railway stations and the capital's sprawling subway system. The mayor of Moscow canceled all mass gatherings and closed theaters and museums over the weekend. Other Russian regions also tightened security measures.
The Kremlin did not blame anyone for the attack, but some Russian lawmakers were quick to accuse Ukraine of being behind the attack. Hours before the attack, the Russian military unleashed a sweeping barrage on Ukraine's power system, crippling the country's largest hydroelectric plant and other energy facilities and leaving more than a million people without power.
Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, denied Ukraine's involvement in the attack on the concert hall.
“Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods. Everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield,” he wrote on the X website.
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said on Friday that he could not yet talk about all the details, but that “the images are so shocking, they are difficult to watch.”
“Our thoughts will be with the victims of this horrific shooting attack,” Kirby said. “There are some mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters who have not received the news yet. This is going to be a difficult day.”
People outside the burning Crocus City Hall concert hall following the shooting incident in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, on March 22, 2024.
stringer | AFP | Getty Images
The attack followed a statement issued earlier this month by the US Embassy in Moscow urging Americans to avoid crowded places in the Russian capital in light of “imminent” plans by extremists to target large gatherings in Moscow, a warning repeated by several people. Other Western embassies.
In response to a question about the March 7 embassy notice, Kirby referred the question to the State Department, adding: “I do not believe it is related to this specific attack.”
In response to a question about whether Washington had any prior information about the attack, Kirby replied: “I am not aware of any prior knowledge we have about this horrific attack.”
Earlier this week, Putin, who has extended his grip on Russia for another six years in presidential elections on March 15-17 after a widespread crackdown on dissent, denounced the Western warnings as an attempt to intimidate Russians.
Russia was rocked by a series of deadly terrorist attacks in the early 2000s while fighting with separatists in Russia's Chechnya province.
In October 2002, Chechen militants took about 800 people hostage in a Moscow theater. Two days later, Russian special forces stormed the building and killed 129 hostages and 41 Chechen fighters, most of them due to the effects of the anesthetic gas Russian forces used to subdue the attackers.
In September 2004, about 30 Chechen militants seized a school in Beslan, southern Russia, and took hundreds of hostages. The siege ended in a bloodbath two days later, and more than 330 people were killed, nearly half of them children.
