The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Friday’s shooting and burning a concert hall in Moscow, killing at least 40 people, injuring more than 100.
The attack carried out by three gun men is coming days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on power in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide.
The Islamic State said in a statement posted on affiliated channels on social media, that it was making a claim which couldn’t be independently verified.
It wasn’t immediately 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 with a collapsing roof, was the deadliest in Russia in years and came as the country’s war in Ukraine dragged into a third year.
The Kremlin said that Putin was informed about the raid minutes after the assailants burst into he 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 famous Russian rock band Picnic. As Russia’s Federal Security Service reported 40 dead and over 100 injured, some Russian news reports suggested that more could have been trapped by the blaze that erupted after the assailants threw explosives. The Health Ministry released a list of 145 injured.
Video from outside showed the building on fire, with a huge cloud of smoke rising through the night sky. The street was lit up by the blinking blue lights of dozens of firetrucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles, as several fire helicopters buzzed overhead to dump water on the blaze that took hours to contain.
The attack took place as crowds gathered for a performance by the famous Russian rock band Picnic. Russian news reports said concertgoers were being evacuated, but that an unknown number could have been trapped by 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 and on Telegram channels. One showed two men with rifles moving through the venue. Another showed a man inside the auditorium and saying the assailants had set it on fire, as gunshots rang out incessantly in the background.
Other videos showed up to four attackers, armed with assault rifles and wearing caps, who were shooting screaming people at point-blank range.
Guards at the concert hall didn’t have guns, and some could have been killed at the start of the attack, Russian media reported. Some Russian news outlets suggested that the assailants fled before special forces and riot police arrived. Reports said that police patrols were looking for several vehicles the attackers could have used to escape. AP
