Gunmen kill at least 40 in attack at concert hall near Moscow

At least 40 people were killed and more than 100 injured when five gunmen dressed in camouflage opened fire with automatic weapons at people at a concert in the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, in one of the worst such attacks on Russia in years.
Russian media reported a second blast at the venue and there were reports that some of the gunmen had barricaded themselves somewhere in the building. The shooting appeared to have begun at a concert of the band “Picnic.”
“A stampede began, everyone ran to the escalator,” the witness said. “Everyone was screaming, everyone was running.”
PUTIN RECEIVING REGULAR UPDATES ON SHOOTING: KREMLIN
The shooting began days after President Vladimir Putin was re-elected for a new six-year term and as Russia is prosecuting a war with Ukraine.
Putin is receiving regular updates about the shooting at the Crocus City Hall concert near Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday night.
“Vladimir Putin was informed about the beginning of the shooting in the first minutes of what happened in Crocus City Hall,” the Kremlin said.
“The president constantly receives information about what is happening and about the measures being taken through all relevant services. The head of state gave all the necessary instructions,” Peskov said.
State news agency TASS cited Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying 40 people had been killed and more than 100 wounded. The FSB said all necessary measures were being taken.
It was not immediately clear who the gunmen were. Russian news agencies said 70 ambulance crews had been sent to the scene.
“A terrible tragedy occurred in the shopping center Crocus City today,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. “I am sorry for the loved ones of the victims.”
Russia tightened security at airports and stations and across the capital — a vast urban area of over 21 million people. Putin has yet to comment in public.
Russia’s foreign ministry said it was a “bloody terrorist attack.”
“The entire world community is obliged to condemn this monstrous crime,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “All efforts are being thrown at saving people.”
SHOOTING PEOPLE
In one unverified video posted on social media, men with automatic weapons were shown firing repeatedly at screaming civilians, including women, who were cowering below what looked like an entrance sign to “Crocus City Hall.”
Another video showed the attackers shooting at people in the concert hall.
The White House said on Friday that images of shooting in the Russian capital were hard to watch.
“The images are just horrible and just hard to watch and our thoughts obviously are going to be with the victims of this terrible, terrible shooting attack,” White House spokesman John Kirby said.
The US embassy in Russia warned earlier this month that “extremists” had imminent plans for an attack in Moscow.
It issued its warning several hours after the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said it had foiled an attack on a synagogue in Moscow by a cell of the militant Sunni Muslim group Islamic State.