Inaarifiwa watu zaidi ya 50 wamefariki.
Wiki mbili zilizopita Marekani na Uingereza zilitoa tahadhari ya kutokea kwa tukio la kigaidi ndani ya Urusi.
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At least a dozen people have been killed and many more wounded according to unofficial reports in the worst terror attack in
Russia in years, as gunmen in combat fatigues opened fire and detonated explosives in a big concert hall in the outskirts of Moscow.
Photos showed the Crocus City Hall engulfed in flames as videos emerged from the concert hall attack, showing at least four gunmen opening fire from automatic weapons as panicked Russians fled for their lives.
In one video, three men in fatigues carrying rifles fired at pointblank range into bodies strewn about the lobby of the concert hall. The attackers also apparently detonated explosives, as the sounds of blasts could be heard in other videos from the attack. At least two blasts took place at the concert hall on Friday evening, news agencies reported.
Video published online showed horrific scenes of some people begging for help from the roof of the concert hall as it burnt behind them. Other video showed images of victims with gunshot wounds being treated in the street outside of the building.
Actions by the local government indicated that officials considered the attack a major incident. Sobyanin said that the Moscow government would cancel all cultural, sporting, and other mass events for the weekend after the attack, as the Russian railroads and other major utilities said they were increasing security.
Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, called the attack a “great tragedy”. At least 70 ambulances had been dispatched to the site of the attack.
Earlier this month, western countries led by the United States had issued terror warnings and told their citizens not to join public gatherings in Russia. On 8 March, the embassy wrote it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours.”
“The attackers presumably opened fire at the entrance to the building during a concert, using automatic weapons, and then a fire began in the building,” said emergency services. Authorities said that up to five people took part in the attack, although more may have been involved, according to video evidence.
Other video showed people screaming, crawling on their hands and knees out of the music venue or fleeing down stairwells. Russian media reports said that riot police units were sent to the area as people were being evacuated. Speznaz units of the Russian national guard began storming the building later on Friday evening. Some of the attackers may have escaped, the Russian news agency Baza reported.
The shooting at the concert hall was reminiscent of some of Europe’s worst terrorist incidents such as the attack on the Bataclan in Paris in November 2015. Russians are likely to recall the Nord Ost terrorist attack in Moscow in 2002, when gunmen took hostages at a theatre in one of the worst incidents in the country’s history.
The Russian news agency 112, which specialises in crime reporting, put the death toll as high as 40 killed and more than 100 injured. It was unclear if police had managed to neutralise the attackers by Friday evening, as emergency workers said they had evacuated 100 people who had been sheltering in the building’s basement.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that the “images of the attack were just horrible and just hard to watch”. The White House had no indication that Ukraine was involved in the attack, Kirby added. Russia is fighting a major war in Ukraine.
An eyewitness told the Mash Telegram channel that there were “at least five” attackers and that they were “bearded”.
“They act like trained fighters,” the account read. “At the moment of entering the building, the guards and people standing at the door were killed. Then they blocked the main entrance.”
“The terrorists are armed with [Kalashnikov] assault rifles,” the person said. “Some carried vests with various ammunition. At least two of the attackers are carrying backpacks, possibly with Molotov cocktails.”
The attack took place at a concert by the Russian rock band Piknik. Crocus City Hall is one of the largest and most popular music venues in the Moscow oblast.
The warnings from the Western embassies came shortly after Russia said it had foiled a planned shooting by an Afghan group linked to Islamic State.
Russian authorities had recently carried out a series of raids against armed Islamist militants in the region of Ingushetia, leading to pitched firefights between police and the fighters.
It was unclear if this was the attack referred to in the warning.
ADD Russia has not faced a large terrorist attack on its own territory since 2017, when 14 people were killed in a blast on the Saint Petersburg metro. Suicide bombers killed 34 people in Volgograd in 2013 shortly before the Sochi Olympics. And in 2011, suicide bombers killed 30 people at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport.
The Guardian