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Post by Admin on Mar 22, 2024 22:23:27 GMT
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Post by Admin on Mar 22, 2024 23:29:23 GMT
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Post by Admin on Mar 22, 2024 23:32:59 GMT
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Post by Admin on Mar 23, 2024 2:56:30 GMT
The first reports of a developing incident came at around 8.30pm local time, when police and emergency services responded to a red alert at the venue. Over the next hour two separate explosions were heard, enveloping the complex in smoke and fire, and reportedly trapping hundreds of people inside. According to witnesses quoted by state media, the gunmen opened fire on latecomers as they queued for entry to the hall. Some survived by hiding in toilets and punching holes through to communication shafts.
“We literally jumped over corpses to escape,” a woman identified as Polina L told 112, a social-media channel closely connected to Russian law enforcement. “People ran, and they hid...We hitched a ride a couple of kilometres away, so afraid were we that they would also shoot on the street.”
The incident came two weeks after warnings from Western embassies of an impending terrorist attack in Moscow, advising citizens to avoid large gatherings. In the days that followed, Russia’s security services announced that they had foiled an attack on a synagogue. On March 9th two Kazakh citizens were reportedly killed in a shoot-out with anti-terrorism officers.
President Vladimir Putin later chose to dismiss the Western warnings during his annual address to his most senior spies on March 19th. “All this resembles outright blackmail and an intention to intimidate and destabilise our society,” he was reported as saying.
Crocus City, a glitzy retail and entertainment park in north-east Moscow, is one of the largest complexes of its sort in Europe, with its own metro station. Its concert hall regularly hosts big groups such as Piknik, the veteran rockers that were due to perform on Friday night. The venue is notable for another reason. Its owner is Aras Agalarov, a Russian-Azeri property developer with close links to Mr Putin. Some reports identified Mr Agalarov as a conduit between the Kremlin and Donald Trump during the 2016 election.
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Post by Admin on Mar 23, 2024 15:01:40 GMT
Putin appeared to pin the blame on Ukraine for the deadly attack in a video statement released Saturday, in which he claimed that a “window” was prepared for attackers to escape to Ukraine. The Russian leader also described the deadly incident as a “barbaric terrorist attack” as he expressed deep condolences and declared Sunday a national day of mourning.
He showed gratitude to emergency service workers who “did everything to save people’s lives, to get them out from under fire, from the epicenter of fire and smoke,” and to avoid even greater losses.
In an update on Saturday, Russia’s Investigative Committee said the death toll had risen to 133.
“During the clearing of the rubble in the Crocus City Hall concert hall, the death toll as a result of the terrorist attack increased to 133 people. Search work continues,” the committee said in a brief posting on Telegram.
In an update earlier Saturday, it said that four men suspected of carrying out the attack had been taken into custody while trying to cross Russia’s border with Ukraine. Earlier the terror group ISIS took responsibility for the attack but provided no evidence to support the claim.
“Special services and law enforcement agencies in the Bryansk region, near the border with Ukraine, detained four suspects from among those who committed a terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall concert hall,” the committee said.
According to state-media RIA Novosti, “the weapons used by the terrorists were prepared in advance in a cache, the FSB (Security Service) reported.”
“After the terrorist attack, the criminals intended to cross the border of the Russian Federation and Ukraine and had relevant contacts on the Ukrainian side, the FSB said,” according to RIA Novosti.
The Belarus ambassador to Russia meanwhile said that Belarusian special services helped Russia prevent “terrorists” from escaping across the border Friday night.
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