Several camouflage-clad gunmen opened fire at a popular concert venue on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday night, killing at least 40 people and wounding more than 100, Russia’s top security agency said, according to state news agencies, which would make it the deadliest attack in the capital region in years.
As gunshots boomed through the building containing the concert hall, one of the largest and most popular music venues in the Moscow area, fire erupted in the upper floors of the structure, and the blaze intensified after an explosion, the news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Multiple videos posted on social media and verified by The New York Times show several people entering the venue, Crocus City Hall — a sprawling shopping and entertainment complex in suburban Krasnogorsk, northwest of Moscow — and firing rifles. Other videos show people running past bloodied victims lying on the floor or screaming at the sound of gunshots, while photos show bodies lined up outside the building.
A woman who gave her name only as Marina said in a text message that she was standing in line for a concert outside, in the cold, about 8 p.m. when people without overcoats started running out of the building, saying they had heard shots.
“As soon as I heard automatic rifle shots I started running, too,” she said.
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The state news agency TASS reported that emergency services had dispatched helicopters to try to rescue people from the building’s roof, where flames and smoke could be seen billowing into the night sky. The roof near the concert stage was collapsing around 10 p.m. local time, RIA Novosti reported.
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There was no report of who might be responsible for the attack or whether any of them had been caught or killed, but state media agencies reported that there had been up to five perpetrators. News agencies attributed the casualty figures to the F.S.B. security agency.
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Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s equivalent to the F.B.I., said it had opened a criminal case into a terrorist act and dispatched its investigators to the site. RIA Novosti said that a special police unit was working inside the building.
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John Kirby, a spokesman for President Biden’s National Security Council, told reporters that the White House had “no indication at this time that Ukraine or Ukrainians were involved.” Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office, said in a video statement that “Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do” with the attack.
Alina Lobzina contributed reporting.
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