Russia says 40 dead and 145 injured in attack on a Moscow concert hall
MOSCOW — Several assailants burst into a concert hall in Moscow Friday and shot at the crowd, killing at least 40 people, injuring more than 100 and setting fire to the venue just days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on power in an orchestrated electoral landslide.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on social media, which couldn’t be independently verified. It wasn’t clear what happened to the attackers after the raid, which Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described as a “huge tragedy” and state authorities were investigating as terrorism.
The attack, which left the concert hall in flames, was the deadliest in Russia in years and came as the country’s war in Ukraine dragged into a third year.
The Kremlin said Putin was informed about the raid after the assailants burst into the Crocus City Hall, a large music venue on Moscow’s western edge that can accommodate 6,200 people.
The attack took place as crowds gathered for a performance by the rock band Picnic. As Russia’s Federal Security Service reported 40 dead and more than 100 injured, some news reports suggested more could have been trapped by the blaze that erupted after the assailants threw explosives. Health authorities released a list of 145 injured — 115 of them hospitalized, including five children.
Video from outside showed the building on fire, with a cloud of smoke rising through the sky. The street was lit up by the blinking blue lights of dozens of firetrucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles, as fire helicopters buzzed overhead to dump water on the blaze.
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. One showed two men with rifles moving through the venue. Another showed a man inside the auditorium saying the assailants had set it on fire, as gunshots rang out incessantly in the background.