Children among those injured in shooting – report
Children are among those injured in the shooting incident and fire at the Crocus City Hall concert centre, Russia’s state-owned Ria news agency is reporting.
Andrey Vorobyov, the governor of Moscow oblast, has posted to his Telegram account that five people are in serious condition.
Key events
The Russian rock band Piknik have not been able to contact one of its members since the attack at the Crocus City Hall, where the band were due to play, its managing director has told Russia’s Tass state news agency.
Yuri Chernyshevsky told Tass:
We can’t contact one [band member], we don’t know if he left Crocus.
He did not specify which members of the band he was referring to.
As we reported earlier, Piknik have posted to Instagram to say that their musicians and management are “alive and safe”.
Islamic State claims responsibility for attack on concert hall
Islamic State have claimed responsibility on its Telegram channel for the attacks at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, Reuters is reporting.
The French foreign ministry has said its thoughts are with the victims of the attack and the Russian people.
In a social media post, the ministry said the images coming out of Moscow were “terrible”, adding that “full light must be shed on these heinous acts.”
#Russie | Les images qui nous parviennent depuis Moscou sont terribles. Nos pensées vont aux victimes et blessés et au peuple russe.
Toute la lumière doit être faite sur ces actes odieux.
— France Diplomatie🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@francediplo) March 22, 2024
The Russian former president Dmitry Medvedev has released a statement calling for those responsible for the attack to be “found and ruthlessly destroyed”.
Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, posted to Telegram:
Terrorists understand only reciprocal terror. No trials or investigations will help if force is not answered with force, and deaths with total punishment of terrorists and repression of their families. That’s our worldly experience.
If it can be established that these terrorists were from the Kyiv regime, it’s impossible to deal with them and those who have been inspired by their ideology any other way. They must all be found and ruthlessly destroyed as terrorists. Including official representatives of the state that committed such an atrocity.
What we know so far
Dozens of people have reportedly been killed and more than 100 wounded in an attack at a concert venue near Moscow.
Here is what we know about the shooting so far:
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Forty people are reported dead and more than 100 wounded after the shooting as of 19.15 GMT, Russian state news agencies said, citing Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
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Videos emerged showing gunmen in tactical gear opening fire from automatic weapons as panicked Russians fled for their lives. The attackers also apparently detonated explosives, as the sounds of blasts could be heard in other videos from the attack.
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Tass, Russia’s state news agency, reported that people remained inside the building, which is almost completely engulfed in flames, and that others were trapped on the roof.
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Earlier this month, western countries led by the United States had issued terror warnings and told their citizens not to join public gatherings in Russia. On 8 March, the US embassy wrote it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and US citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours”.
People injured in the attack on the Crocus City Hall are being hospitalised in medical institutions of the Moscow region, the regional health ministry told state news agency Tass. It cites the ministry as saying:
The victims of the terrorist attack are being rushed to hospitals in Krasnogorsk, Khimki and Odintsovo.
At least 40 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded, according to reports. Five people are in serious condition, the governor of Moscow oblast has said.
Russia cancels all entertainment and mass events
All entertainment and mass events in Russia have been cancelled, the country’s culture ministry has announced.
The attack took place as crowds gathered for a concert of the Russian rock band, Piknik, at the Crocus City Hall concert centre in the outskirts of Moscow.
The band has posted a statement to Instagram to say that they are “alive and safe”, the BBC is reporting, adding:
There was a tragedy that took place, the scale of which we can’t yet assess.
We are following the news and awaiting official information. The musicians and management are alive and safe.
Here is some background coming from the Associated Press on previous terrorist attacks in Russia:
Russia was shaken by a series of deadly terror attacks in the early 2000s during the fighting with separatists in the Russian province of Chechnya.
In October 2002, Chechen militants took about 800 people hostage at a Moscow theater. Two days later, Russian special forces stormed the building and 129 hostages and 41 Chechen fighters died, most of them from effects of narcotic gas Russian forces used to subdue the attackers.
And in September 2004, about 30 Chechen militants seized a school in Beslan in southern Russia taking hundreds of hostages. The siege ended in a bloodbath two days later and more than 330 people, about half of them children, were killed.
Children among those injured in shooting – report
Children are among those injured in the shooting incident and fire at the Crocus City Hall concert centre, Russia’s state-owned Ria news agency is reporting.
Andrey Vorobyov, the governor of Moscow oblast, has posted to his Telegram account that five people are in serious condition.
Search for concert hall attackers ongoing – reports
The Russian national guard is searching for those who attacked the Crocus City Hall concert centre near Moscow, Russian news agencies are reporting.
The US state department has said its embassy in Moscow is aware of reports of an ongoing terrorist incident at Crocus City Hall.
In a social media post, it advised US citizens to avoid the area and follow instructions of local authorities.
Putin receiving regular updates on attack, says Kremlin
The Kremlin has said that Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is receiving regular updates about the shooting at the Crocus City Hall concert hall.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, in a statement carried by Russia’s Tass state news agency, said:
In the first minutes of the incident at the Crocus City Hall, the president was informed about the start of the shooting. The president is constantly supplied by all relevant services with information about what is happening and the measures being taken. The president has already given all the necessary instructions.
Here are some of the latest images we have received from the newswires from outside the Crocus City Hall venue in Moscow.
Videos and photos have emerged showing the Crocus City Hall engulfed in flames and from the attack, showing at least four gunmen opening fire from automatic weapons as panicked Russians fled for their lives.
In one video, three men in fatigues carrying rifles fired at pointblank range into bodies strewn about the lobby of the concert hall. The attackers also apparently detonated explosives, as the sounds of blasts could be heard in other videos from the attack.
Ukraine denies involvement in attacks
Ukraine has denied involvement in the attacks, with Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tweeting the following statement:
Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall (Moscow Region, Russia). It makes no sense whatsoever …
Ukraine has been fighting with the Russian army for more than two years. And everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield. Only by the quantity of weapons and qualitative military decisions. Terrorist attacks do not solve any problems …
Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods. It is always pointless. Unlike, by the way, Russia itself, which uses terrorist attacks in the current war against Ukraine …
And thirdly, long before the events in #Crocus_City_Hall, we had heard public warnings from foreign embassies stationed in #Moscow about the possibility of such bloody excesses.
As a conclusion: there is not the slightest doubt that the events in the Moscow suburbs will contribute to a sharp increase in military propaganda, accelerated militarization, expanded mobilization, and, ultimately, the scaling up of the war. And also to justify manifest genocidal strikes against the civilian population of Ukraine …
Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall (Moscow Region, Russia). It makes no sense whatsoever.
First of all, Ukraine has been fighting with the Russian army for more than two years. And everything in this war will be decided only…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) March 22, 2024
Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died in February in a Russian penal colony, has expressed her condolences after the attacks on Friday night.
In a post on X, Navanlnaya wrote:
What a nightmare in Crocus. Condolences to the families of the victims and recovery to the injured. All those involved in this crime must be found and held accountable.”
Какой кошмар в Крокусе. Соболезнования родным погибших и выздоровления пострадавшим. Все причастные к этому преступлению должны быть найдены и понести ответственность
— Yulia Navalnaya (@yulia_navalnaya) March 22, 2024
40 dead, more than 100 wounded, says FSB
Forty people are dead and more than 100 others are wounded following shooting attacks at Crocus City Hall outside Moscow on Friday night, according to Russia’s Federal Security Service.
According to IFX, up to five gunmen were involved in the attacks.
Russia’s top investigative agency, the Investigative Committee, said that it is investigating the events as a terrorist attack, the Associated Press reports.
The agency did not say who may be responsible for the attacks.
