Kremlin says Moscow concert hall attack killed 40 people and injured more than 100 | Wilnesh News

Gunmen burst into a large concert hall on the edge of Moscow on Friday and opened fire on the crowd with automatic guns, killing at least 40 people and wounding more than 100, days after President Vladimir Putin The venue was set on fire in a brazen attack. consolidated his control A landslide victory in a carefully orchestrated election.

It was unclear what happened to the attacker and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called a “huge tragedy” that state authorities were treating as terrorism. Conduct an investigation. The attack, which set the concert hall on fire and collapsed its roof, was Russia’s deadliest attack in years and the country’s worst. war in ukraine Drag into year three.

Russia’s main domestic security and counter-terrorism agency, the Federal Security Service, said the attack at the Crocus City Hall, a large concert hall on the western edge of Moscow, killed 40 people and injured more than 100 others.

According to Russian news media, the attackers threw explosives, sparking a fire in the hall, which seats 6,000 people. Video outside showed the building on fire, with huge plumes of smoke rising into the night sky. The flashing blue lights of dozens of fire trucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles illuminated the streets.

The attack occurred as crowds gathered to watch a performance by the famous Russian rock band Picnic. Russian news reports said concertgoers were being evacuated, but an unknown number of people may have been trapped in the blaze.

The prosecutor’s office said several men dressed in combat fatigues entered the concert hall and opened fire on concertgoers.

Continuous gunshots can be heard in videos posted by Russian media and Telegram channels. One of the photos showed two men armed with rifles walking around the venue. Another photo showed a man inside the auditorium and said attackers set it on fire as gunfire rang out in the background.

Other footage showed four attackers armed with assault rifles and wearing hats shooting at screaming people at close range.

According to Russian media reports, the concert hall guards did not have firearms and some may have been killed when the attack began. It was unclear what happened to the attackers, but some Russian news outlets suggested they fled before special forces and riot police arrived.

Russian authorities said security checks had been stepped up at Moscow’s airports, train stations and the capital’s vast subway system. Moscow’s mayor canceled all mass gatherings and theaters and museums were closed for the weekend. Security measures have also been stepped up in other parts of Russia.

The Kremlin did not blame anyone for the attack, but some Russian lawmakers were quick to accuse Ukraine of being behind it.Hours before the attack, the Russian militaryLaunched a comprehensive barrage attack Ukraine’s power system has been damaged, knocking out the country’s largest hydroelectric power plant and other energy facilities, leaving more than a million people without power.

Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, denied Ukrainian involvement in the concert hall attack.

“Ukraine has never resorted to terror,” he posted on X. “Everything in this war will be decided on the battlefield.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that he could not reveal all the details yet, but “these images are horrific. And they are difficult to watch.”

“Our hearts go out to the victims of this horrific shooting,” Kirby said. “There are moms and dads, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters who haven’t gotten this news yet. It’s going to be a hard day.”

The attack came after the U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a statement earlier this month urging Americans to avoid crowded places in the Russian capital because extremists “imminently” planned to target large rallies in Moscow, a statement some repeated. Warn other Western embassies.

Asked about the notice issued by the embassy on March 7, Kirby referred questions to the State Department, adding: “I don’t think it has anything to do with this specific attack.”

Asked whether Washington had any advance information about the attack, Kirby responded: “I’m not aware that we had any advance knowledge of this horrific attack.”

Putin extended his control over Russia by six years in the March 15-17 presidential election following a sweeping crackdown on dissent. Earlier this week, Putin denounced Western warnings as an attempt to intimidate Russians.

Russia was rocked by a series of deadly terrorist attacks in the early 2000s during fighting against separatists in the Russian province of Chechnya.

In October 2002, Chechen militants took about 800 people hostage at a Moscow theater. Two days later, Russian special forces attacked the building, killing 129 hostages and 41 Chechen militants, most of them from the effects of anesthetic gas used by Russian troops to subdue the attackers.

In September 2004, about 30 Chechen militants seized a school in Beslan, southern Russia, and took hundreds of hostages. The siege ended two days later in a massacre in which more than 330 people were killed, about half of whom were children.