Several gunmen have burst into a large concert hall on the edge of Moscow and sprayed the crowd with automatic gunfire, killing more than 60 people, wounding nearly 150 others and setting fire to the venue in a brazen attack.
Friday's attack at Crocus City Hall on Moscow's western edge, which left the large music hall in flames with a collapsed roof, was the deadliest attack in Russia in years and came as the country's war with Ukraine dragged into a third year.
"The bodies of the deceased are currently being examined. It is provisionally established that more than 60 people died in the terrorist attack. Unfortunately, the number of victims could rise," said the Investigative Committee.
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.
Odious crime
The blinking blue lights of dozens of firetrucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles lighted up the street. 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 the blaze could have trapped an unknown number.
Authorities said a "terrorist" investigation had been started and President Vladimir Putin was receiving "constant" updates, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it had been a "bloody terrorist attack". "The whole international community must condemn this odious crime," she said on Telegram.
A lot of screams
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the attack as a "huge tragedy" and cancelled all public events in the city for the weekend.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan was among the first to tell his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that Ankara condemns the "heinous terrorist attack".
Russia has not blamed any group or country yet, but Daesh terror group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Reuters news agency. TRT Afrika could not immediately verify the authenticity of the claim.
Alexei, a music producer visiting the concert, told AFP news agency he heard "several machine gun bursts and a terrible female scream. Then a lot of screams. Just three or four bursts and then there were a few more".
Men with rifles
"Then white smoke started to billow," he said. There was a "terrible crush" as people tried to escape and people "were climbing on their heads to get out", he added.
The prosecutor's 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 said the assailants had set it on fire, as gunshots rang out incessantly in the background.
Ukraine distances self
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't have guns, and some could have been killed at the start of the attack, Russian media reported.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denied Ukraine's involvement in the concert hall attack.
"Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods," he posted on X. "Everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield."
Russia will find and destroy Ukraine's top officials if they are linked to the gun attack outside Moscow that left dozens dead on Friday, former president Dmitry Medvedev warned.
John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said that he couldn't yet speak about all the details but that "the images are just horrible. And just hard to watch."
Responding to a question about whether Washington had any prior information about the assault, Kirby responded: "I'm not aware of any advance knowledge that we had of this terrible attack."
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