MOSCOW — Assailants burst into a large concert hall in Moscow on Friday, March 22, 2024, and sprayed the crowd with gunfire, killing 115 people, injuring around 100 others and setting fire to the venue in a brazen attack just days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on power in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on affiliated channels on social media. A US intelligence official told The Associated Press that US intelligence agencies had learned the group’s branch in Afghanistan was planning an attack in Moscow and shared the information with Russian officials.
Eleven people have been detained, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service told Putin on Saturday, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said four people among those detained were directly involved in the attack. They were stopped in the Bryansk region of western Russia, “not far from the border with Ukraine,” it said.
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. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called the raid a “huge tragedy.”
The Kremlin said Putin was informed minutes after the assailants burst into 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 Russian rock band Picnic.
In the aftermath of the attack, some Russian lawmakers were quick to accuse Ukraine. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denied any involvement.
“Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield.”
Friday’s attack followed a statement earlier this month by the US Embassy in Moscow that urged Americans to avoid crowded places in view of “imminent” plans by extremists to target large gatherings in the Russian capital, including concerts. The warning was repeated by several other Western embassies.
In October 2002, Chechen militants took about 800 people hostage at a Moscow theater. Two days later, Russian special forces stormed the building and 129 hostages and 41 Chechen fighters died, most from effects of narcotic gas Russian forces used to subdue the attackers. (AP)