At least 115 people were killed on Friday in a shooting followed by a fire at a concert hall in a Moscow suburb, blamed by Russian authorities on a “bloody terrorist attack.” Shortly after this massacre became known, the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the event through a statement.
The Russian Investigative Committee (IC) indicated that the death toll will increase.
“Islamic State fighters attacked a large Christian gathering in the city of Krasnogorsk, on the outskirts of the Russian capital, Moscow, killing and wounding hundreds of people and causing widespread destruction there before retreating to their bases. safely,” reported Amaq, the IS propaganda agency on its Telegram channel.
The brief statement did not offer more details about the shooting that, according to the authorities of the Moscow region, leaves more than twenty wounded people hospitalized, five of them in serious condition, and has become one of the most serious attacks, due to number of victims, of those registered in Moscow in the last 20 years.
Special units of the Russian National Guard [Rosgvardia] They operate at the site of the attack and are “searching” for its perpetrators, this organization added in the Telegram message.
The Russian Foreign Ministry attributed the tragedy, which occurred in an auditorium in Krasnogorsk, to “a bloody terrorist attack.”
Emergency services respond to the attack in Moscow.
Photo: AFP
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“The entire international community must condemn this heinous crime!” said Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry. By the way, the United States described the events as “terrible.” For its part, the European Union expressed its dismay at the massacre against civilians. While in Latin America, Mexico, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba also expressed their condolences.
For its part, the Government of Colombia also rejected the attack. “We express our solidarity with the affected citizens and express our most sincere condolences to the families and relatives of those who died. We also wish a speedy recovery to those who were injured in these events,” the Colombian Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, announced the cancellation of “all sporting, cultural” and public events during the weekend. An AFP journalist saw the concert hall building on fire and black smoke rising from the roof.
The world‘s main agencies (AFP, Efe and Reuters) reported on the message of the Islamic State. However, the BBC in London says that the group has sometimes “claimed responsibility for attacks it had nothing to do with.”
The stories of the distressing moments
According to a reporter from the Russian agency Ria Novosti, people in camouflage uniforms burst into the room and opened fire before throwing “a grenade or an incendiary bomb, causing a fire.”
“The people who were in the room fell to the ground to protect themselves from the gunshots for 15 or 20 minutes” and many managed to “crawl out,” he said.
At the Crocus City Hall shopping center after the shooting.
Photo: AFP
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The rescue services reported a “group of two to five unidentified people, with combat uniforms and automatic weapons”, who “opened fire on the security agents at the entrance to the concert hall”, before “starting to shoot at the public”.
According to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, firefighters managed to evacuate about a hundred people who were in the basement. There are also operations underway to “save people who are on the roof of the building,” he explained. The assault occurred during a concert by the Russian rock group Piknik, whose members were evacuated, according to the TASS agency.
The current affairs networks Baza and Mash, close to the security forces on Telegram, published videos in which at least two armed men are seen advancing through the lobby of the complex. In different sequences, corpses and groups of people are seen rushing towards the exit.
Other images show spectators hiding behind seats or evacuating the room.
President Putin has been constantly informed of how the situation is evolving.
Photo:EPA
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Background
Shortly before it became known that the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the massacre, former Russian president Dmiti Medvedev, number two on the Security Council, threatened to “destroy” the Ukrainian leaders if it was proven that they were involved in the lethal attack.
Ukraine, faced with a Russian military intervention since 2022, assured that it had “absolutely nothing to do” with the attack. While the “Russian Freedom Legion”, a group of Russian anti-government fighters based in Ukraine, also denied any involvement.
In recent days, this group has carried out armed incursions into Russian border regions, which were also targets of bombings.
The Ukrainian military intelligence services, for their part, accused the Kremlin itself and its special services of being behind the aggression.
The “objective is to justify even more powerful bombings against Ukraine and total mobilization in Russia,” they said.
Two weeks ago, the US embassy in Russia had warned its citizens of “imminent” plans by “extremists” to “attack large gatherings in Moscow, including concerts.”
Russia has already been the target of numerous attacks, committed by Islamist groups, and of shootings without political motives or attributed to unbalanced individuals.
In 2002, a group of Chechen fighters took 912 people hostage in the Moscow theater of Dubrovka to demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
That hostage taking ended with an intervention by the special forces and the death of 130 people, almost all of them asphyxiated by the gas used by the military.
*With agencies