2024-03-24 01:52:54
According to the latest data, there are 93 victims, including three children
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack with a video on social media
The US has warned Russia of suspected terrorist attacks
An explosion, automatic weapons fire and a fire at a large concert hall in Moscow during a concert by the Russian rock band Picnic. This echoed in the world media, minutes after a large-scale terrorist attack in the Russian capital.
“Everybody started laying down on the floor, we started laying on top of each other in the aisle, we were directing the crowd to move forward. At the same time, we realized that they could enter through any door with machine guns, and we tried to move to the nearest exit upstairs. Slowly, crawling forward with the realization that we might die,” one eyewitness, who saw the attackers kill people at a concert hall outside Moscow, told the BBC.
Sofiko Kvirikashvili from Moscow was at the concert together with her husband. They barely managed to escape the bullets: “We were sitting on the sixth row of the VIP floor. Some music was playing, posters of the nearest concerts were playing on the screens. The second bell rang and the hall was more than half full,” she told the BBC.
“We were on the balcony, upstairs. There are 10 minutes left before the start of the concert, many people had already gathered, 70% of the hall was full,” said photographer Dave Primov, who was also in the hall when the shooting began.
“We didn’t realize it was gunshots – I thought it was some kind of fireworks. Some kind of endless volley, maybe some horns? I turned once in the hall, a second time. And on the third time, I realized that the whole hall began to disperse in different directions,” recalls Sofiko Kvirikashvili.
“We heard what I thought were fireworks. And my friend who was at the concert with me also thought it was about dawn. And then we saw people walking along the lower part of the hall, closer to the stage, in a crowd, like a steam locomotive. I didn’t understand what that was,” says Dave Privov.
“As a person who works in the field of cinema, I was not afraid of the shots. At first I didn’t realize anything. We were in the dressing room, a crowd rushed past us. We heard the noise, the running in the corridor, grabbed our jackets and ran outside with the crowd,” Eva explained.
Eva also says that security quickly opened all the exits.
“The security guards were professionally guiding everyone and telling them not to panic. They just took me out with the crowd,” she recalled. According to her, everyone ran from the concert hall through the neighboring shopping center.
Those who sat higher and did not have time to quickly escape through the ground floor and the stage left by another route.
“The sounds from the “fireworks” became louder and closer, there was a huge panic in the hall, people started to scatter in different directions, but they bumped into each other, there was no evacuation,” says Dave Privov.
At that moment, the shooting started already in the concert hall, on the left side of the stage, and Dave Privov saw the attackers – they entered the hall. The photographer and his friend are on the balcony, away from the stage.
“They were wearing either brown clothes or brown vests. Shots from machine guns could be heard precisely through the crowd of people, and they walked from the entrance of the hall on the ground floor towards the stage, pushing people into the center of the hall. I saw how bullets were aimed at people,” Privov describes the horror.
“Everybody started laying down on the floor, we started laying on top of each other in the aisle, we started coordinating the crowd to move forward. At the same time, we realized that they could enter through any door with machine guns, and we tried to move to the nearest exit upstairs. Slowly, crawling, crawling, forward, up, we crawled. And we started to get away,” says the photographer.
Dave says the crowd tried to move away from the sound of the gunfire:
“We ran to the technical part of Crocus, to the balconies. And we just ran into various closed doors, people in panic, some crying, others calling their relatives, others waiting for the elevator that was not working. Basically, we ended up in a large dark room. From there, people found a way out except by a flight of stairs, but the door leading to it was locked. Running spectators managed to break it down,” says Dave.
While some eyewitnesses spoke of the professional work of the security guards, who quickly opened all the doors so they could evacuate, others were less fortunate.
“Passing by the Crocus entrance, I saw people running and banging on the windows, not knowing how to get out because all the other doors were closed,” the man recalled.
What is known so far – the facts
There were probably 6,300 people in the “Crocus” concert hall, located in a large shopping complex in the suburbs of Moscow. After at least five well-armed terrorists stormed in, a third of the hall burst into flames. Helicopters are involved in extinguishing the fire. Dozens of ambulances, police, the National Guard, special forces, have been dispatched to the area.
According to the latest data, the number of dead is 115 people, including three children. The TASS agency reported that 121 people, including three children, were admitted to hospitals in Moscow and the Moscow region. According to the press service of the Investigative Committee of Russia, the causes of death were gunshot wounds and poisoning by combustion products.
At noon on Saturday, the Federal Security Service announced that it had arrested 11 people involved in the attack. This included the four direct perpetrators who were Tajik citizens. According to unofficial versions, the four, and in some reports the six, direct perpetrators were detained while fleeing in a Renault car between Moscow and Bryansk.
Who is behind the attack – the versions
At night, the terrorist organization “Islamic State” took responsibility, first through the “Telegram” channels. The Islamists published a brief statement about the terror through their close Amaq news agency.
Islamic State, however, has a habit of claiming terrorist attacks that it is not actually behind, Islamic terrorism analysts recalled.
The US also confirmed to Reuters that the Islamic State was probably behind the attack. The embassies of the United States and Great Britain two weeks ago warned their citizens in Russia of an increased risk of terrorism and urged not to attend large public gatherings. A few days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin called these warnings a provocation of the West because of his re-election as president.
On Saturday, however, the FSB confirmed that they had received information from the Americans about planned attacks. But there was nothing concrete about it.
Hours before the American warning, the Federal Security Service prevented an attack on a synagogue in Moscow organized by the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group. The United States said it had intelligence that jihadists, who in the past controlled vast swaths of Syria and Iraq, were responsible for the attack. At this time, there are no indications that Ukraine was involved in the attack, the White House officially announced.
However, Ukraine turned out to be the worst suspect in the first hours after the attack, at least for the propagandists of the Russian regime. Fake news was also spread about a high-ranking Ukrainian official confessing on a TV show.
“Let’s be clear – Ukraine has nothing to do with the events in Moscow. Firstly, because we are waging a full-scale and intense war with the Russian regular army and with Russia as a state. And everything is decided on the battlefield. It is important for Ukraine to conduct effective combat operations with the aim of destroying the regular army. Second, Ukraine has never used terrorist methods in waging war, terrorism is a method,” however, reads the official position of Kiev.
Despite this, however, on Saturday at noon, the FSB again revived the Ukrainian connection. By announcing that the detained terrorists fled to Ukraine because they had connections there.
“After the terrorist attack, the criminals intended to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border and had relevant contacts from the Ukrainian side,” the special service said. “The investigation into the terrorist attack continues,” the FSB added.
However, at the same time, although informally, the suspicion that terrorism is organized, if not directly, then at least with the knowledge of Vladimir Putin’s regime, has already begun to spread in Russian chats and Telegram channels. In order to obtain political benefits – consolidation of the Russians, mobilization of soldiers, etc.
It is recalled that for many years Putin has been accused of organizing terrorist actions in Russia in order to derive benefits. It is to their president that opposition-minded Russians attribute the wave of assassinations in 1999. Then Putin was appointed prime minister, and Russia was in conflict with Dagestan. This was followed by a series of bombings in apartment blocks, including in Moscow. And the federal authorities attribute them to terrorists. As a result, the invasion of Russian troops in Chechnya followed, and Putin became the successor of the then president Boris Yeltsin a year later.
The Russian opposition also found a link between Putin and the attack on the “Dubrovka” theater in 2002. Then 40 Chechen rebels stormed the theater center of Moscow’s “Dubrovka” district and took more than 900 people hostage. After days of negotiations, Russia’s special forces stormed the theater, but before that they released sleeping gas into the ventilation. Not only terrorists were poisoned, but also many hostages. The victims are 129 people officially and 174 according to non-governmental organizations. The Bulgarian Emilia Uzunova also died there.
After this incident, Putin began severely restricting civil liberties. Laws have also been adopted that almost completely subordinate the media to the regime.
Against free speech and journalists, Putin also used the terrorist attack on a children’s center in Beslan, in which nearly 200 children died. Again the terrorists are Chechens and again the attack of the Russian special forces is merciless and regardless of who are terrorists and who are victims.
After this attack, Putin also changed the system for appointing the governors of the Russian regions, which up to that point were freely elected. With this system, Putin actually eliminates the possibility that somewhere in Russia local power is in the hands of the opposition.
Russian oppositionists are convinced that Vladimir Putin’s regime will certainly reap benefits after the Crocus tragedy.
Moscow will demand that a meeting of the UN Security Council be convened in connection with the terrorist attack in “Crocus City Hall” and will insist that it be done soon, the ambassador for special orders of the Russian foreign ministry said on the air of the Rossiya-24 TV channel. ministry Rodion Miroshnik, quoted by TASS, writes BTA.
Miroshnik said that Russian diplomats will raise this issue at the beginning of the (UN) Security Council meeting and demand that a meeting of the Security Council be convened as soon as possible to condemn these actions by the largest international organization.
In our country, the police are taking increased security measures after the attack in Moscow. They were ordered by Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov.
Employees from various structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are taking enhanced measures to ensure the security and peace of citizens on the territory of the country. Police patrols and gendarmes equipped with long-barreled weapons will patrol the urban areas and maintain order and ensure safety.
The purpose of the measures ordered by Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov is to prevent violations of public order and increase vigilance.