Achi news desk-
Several attackers burst into a large concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow and sprayed the crowd with gunfire, killing at least 60 people, injuring more than 100 others and setting the venue on fire in a brazen attack.
It comes just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin consolidated his grip on power in a highly musical electoral landslide.
The so-called Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on related social media channels, which could not be independently verified.
It was not immediately clear what happened to the attackers after the raid, which Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin described as a “massive tragedy” and was being investigated by state authorities as terrorism.
The attack, which left the concert hall in flames with a collapsed roof, was the deadliest attack in Russia for years and came as the country’s war in Ukraine dragged into a third year.
The Kremlin said Mr Putin was informed of the raid minutes after the attackers broke into the Crocus City Hall, a large music venue on the western edge of Moscow that can hold 6,200 people.
The attack happened as crowds gathered for a performance by the famous Russian rock band Picnic.
As Russia’s Federal Security Service reported 60 dead and more than 100 injured, some Russian news reports suggest more may have been caught in the fire that erupted after the attackers threw explosives.
Health authorities released a list of 145 injured – 115 of whom were admitted to hospital, including five children.
Video from outside showed the building on fire, with a huge cloud of smoke rising through the night sky.
The street was illuminated by the flashing blue lights of dozens of fire engines, ambulances and other emergency vehicles, as several fire helicopters buzzed overhead to drop water on the blaze.
The attack happened as crowds gathered for a performance by the famous Russian rock band Picnic.
Russian news reports said concertgoers were being evacuated, but an unknown number may have been caught in the fire.
The prosecutor’s office said that several men in combat fatigues entered the concert hall and opened fire on concert goers.
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 scene.
Another showed a man inside the auditorium and said the attackers had set him on fire, as gunshots rang out incessantly in the background.
Other videos showed up to four attackers, armed with assault rifles and caps, shooting screaming people at point blank range.
Guards at the concert hall did not have guns, and some could have been killed at the start of the attack, Russian media reported.
It was not immediately clear what happened to the attackers, but some Russian news outlets suggested they fled before special forces and riot police arrived.
According to reports, police patrols were looking for several vehicles that the attackers may have used to escape.
In a statement posted by its Aamaq news agency, IS said it attacked a large gathering in Krasnogorsk on the outskirts of Moscow, killing and wounding hundreds.
It was not immediately possible to confirm the authenticity of the claim.
Earlier this month, Russia’s main security agency said it had thwarted an attack on a synagogue in Moscow by an IS cell.
Russian authorities also said six alleged IS members were killed in Ingushetia in Russia’s volatile Caucasus region.
It was not clear why the group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq but also in Afghanistan and Africa, would carry out an attack in Russia at this time.
Over the years, the extremist group recruited fighters from the former Soviet Union who fought for the group in Syria and Iraq and claimed several attacks in the Caucasus and other Russian regions in the past.
As the fire raged, expressions of anger, shock and support for those affected came from around the world.
Some commentators on Russian social media questioned how authorities, who are vigilant and tirelessly pressuring Kremlin critics, failed to recognize the threat and prevent the attack.
Russian authorities said security had been tightened at Moscow’s airports, railway stations and the capital’s sprawling subway system.
The mayor of Moscow canceled all mass gatherings and closed theaters and museums for the weekend.
Other Russian regions also tightened security.
The Kremlin has not blamed anyone for the attack, but some Russian lawmakers were quick to accuse Ukraine of being behind it.
Hours before the attack, the Russian military launched a sweeping barrage on Ukraine’s power system, taking out the country’s largest hydroelectric plant and other energy facilities and leaving more than a million people without electricity.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, denied Ukraine’s involvement in the attack on the concert hall.
“Ukraine has never resorted to using terrorist methods,” he posted on X.
“Everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield.”
John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said he could not talk about all the details yet but that “the images are horrific. And hard to watch”.
“Our thoughts are going to be with the victims of this terrible, terrible shooting,” Mr Kirby said.
“There are some mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters who have not received the news yet. This is going to be a tough day.”
The attack followed a statement issued earlier this month by the US embassy in Moscow urging Americans to avoid crowded places in the Russian capital in the face of “imminent” plans by extremists to target large gatherings in Moscow, warning which was repeated by several others. western embassies.
Asked about the embassy notice issued on March 7, Mr Kirby referred the question to the State Department, adding: “I don’t believe that is related to this particular attack.”
Responding to a question about whether Washington had any prior knowledge of the attack, Mr Kirby responded: “I am not aware of any prior knowledge that we had of this terrible attack.”
Earlier this week Mr Putin, who extended his grip on Russia for another six years in the March 15-17 presidential vote after a sweeping crackdown on dissent, denounced the Western warnings as an attempt to scare Russians.
Russia was rocked by a series of deadly terrorist attacks in the early 2000s during the fighting with separatists in the Russian state of Chechnya.
In October 2002, Chechen militants took around 800 people hostage in a theater in Moscow.
Two days later, Russian special forces attacked the building and 129 hostages and 41 Chechen fighters died, most of them from the effects of narcotic gas Russian forces used to subdue the attackers.
And in September 2004, around 30 Chechen militants seized a school in Beslan in southern Russia, taking hundreds of hostages.
The siege ended in a bloodbath two days later and more than 330 people were killed, around half of them children.
