Several assailants burst into a large concert hall in Moscow on Friday and sprayed the crowd with gunfire, killing at least 40 people, injuring more than 100 and setting fire to the venue in a brazen attack just days after President Vladimir Putin on power in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide.
It wasn鈥檛 immediately clear what happened to the attackers, and there were no immediate claims of responsibility for the raid, which Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described as a 鈥渉uge tragedy鈥� and state authorities were investigating as terrorism.
The attack, which left the concert hall in flames with a collapsing roof, was the deadliest in Russia in years and came as the country鈥檚 dragged into a third year.
The attack targeted the Crocus City Hall, a large music venue on Moscow鈥檚 western edge, according to Russia鈥檚 Federal Security Service, the main domestic security and counter-terrorism agency, which provided the figures on the dead and wounded.
The assailants threw explosives, triggering the massive blaze at the hall, which can accommodate 6,000, according to Russian news outlets. Video from outside showed the building on fire, with a huge cloud of smoke rising through the night sky. The street was lit up by the blinking blue lights of dozens of firetrucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles, as several fire helicopters buzzed overhead to dump water on the blaze.
The attack took place as crowds gathered for a performance by the famous Russian rock band Picnic. Russian news reports said concertgoers were being evacuated, but that an unknown number could have been trapped by the blaze.
The prosecutor鈥檚 office said several men in combat fatigues entered the concert hall and fired on concertgoers.
Repeated volleys of gunfire could be heard in videos posted by Russian media and on Telegram channels. One showed two men with rifles moving through the venue. Another showed a man inside the auditorium and saying the assailants had set it on fire, as gunshots rang out incessantly in the background.
Other videos showed up to four attackers, armed with assault rifles and wearing caps, who were shooting screaming people at point-blank range.
Guards at the concert hall didn鈥檛 have guns, and some could have been killed at the start of the attack, Russian media reported. Some Russian news outlets suggested that the assailants fled before special forces and riot police arrived.
As the blaze continued to rage late into the night, statements of outrage, shock and support to those affected streamed in from around the world.
Some commentators on Russian social media questioned how authorities, who relentlessly surveil and pressure Kremlin critics, failed to identify the threat and prevent the attack.
Russian authorities said security has been tightened at Moscow鈥檚 airports, railway stations and the capital鈥檚 sprawling subway system. Moscow鈥檚 mayor canceled all mass gatherings and theaters and museums shut for the weekend. Other Russian regions also tightened security.
The Kremlin didn鈥檛 immediately blame anyone for the attack, but some Russian lawmakers were quick to accuse Ukraine of being behind it and called for ramping up strikes. Hours before the attack, the Russian military l on Ukraine鈥檚 power system, crippling the country鈥檚 biggest hydroelectric plant and other energy facilities and leaving more than a million people without electricity.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia鈥檚 Security Council, said that if Kyiv鈥檚 involvement in the attack on the concert hall is proven, all those involved 鈥渕ust be tracked down and killed without mercy, including officials of the state that committed such outrage.鈥�
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denied Ukraine鈥檚 involvement in the concert hall attack.
鈥淯kraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods,鈥� he posted on X. 鈥淓verything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield.鈥�
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Friday that he couldn鈥檛 yet speak about all the details but that 鈥渢he images are just horrible. And just hard to watch.鈥�
鈥淥ur thoughts are going to be with the victims of this terrible, terrible shooting attack,鈥� Kirby said. 鈥淭here are some moms and dads and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters who haven鈥檛 gotten the news yet. This is going to be a tough day.鈥�
The attack followed a statement issued earlier this month by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that urged the Americans to avoid crowded places in the Russian capital in view of 鈥渋mminent鈥� plans by extremists to target large gatherings in Moscow, including concerts. The warning was repeated by several other Western embassies.
Asked about the embassy鈥檚 notice issued on March 7, Kirby referred the question to the State Department, adding: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that was related to this specific attack.鈥�
Responding to a question about whether Washington had any prior information about the assault, Kirby responded: 鈥淚鈥檓 not aware of any advance knowledge that we had of this terrible attack.鈥�
Putin, who extended his grip on Russia for another six years in the March 15-17 presidential vote after a sweeping crackdown on dissent, earlier this week denounced the Western warnings as an attempt to intimidate Russians. 鈥淎ll that resembles open blackmail and an attempt to frighten and destabilize our society,鈥� he said.
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 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 use to subdue the attackers.
And in September 2004, about 30 Chechen militants 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.
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