Witnesses of the attack in Moscow: they shot directly at people who were trying to hide

Understand instantly

• The attack took place on Friday evening in Krasnogorsk, a city in the Moscow Region, northwest of Moscow
• At least five well-armed men dressed in camouflage burst into Crocus City Hall, where the rock band Picnic was scheduled to perform, and opened fire.
• The FSB announces that 40 people were killed and over a hundred were injured
• During the attack, two explosions occurred, a large fire broke out in the building, and part of the roof collapsed

Read more regarding the event here.

The basement became a salvation

Among the witnesses of the event was a man named Vitaly, according to BBC Russia.

Here’s what he said: “At first we didn’t know what was going on. Then I saw the terrorists shooting people. They threw some Molotov cocktails, everything caught fire. We were led to the exit. The exit door was locked, so we ran to the basement and waited for help.”

Another witness, who did not give his name, said that there were parents in the building who came with their children to the dance competition: “Children and teenagers participated in the competition. People came running and said they were shooting. There was a rush, the children ran out dressed for the performance.”

Shot directly at people

The BBC Russia editorial office contacted the witness of the terrorist attack, the photographer Dave Primov.

Here is his story:

“We were on the balcony, upstairs. There were regarding 10 minutes left before the start of the concert, many people had already gathered, 70%. the hall was full. At some point we heard what I thought was the sound of fireworks. And my colleague, who was at the concert with me, was surprised: “Fireworks?”

And following that, we saw a crowd of people going down the lower part of the hall, closer to the stage, like a “train”. I didn’t understand what it was.

After that, the sounds of “fireworks” became even louder and closer, there was a huge panic in the hall, people started to run in different directions, but collided with each other, there was no evacuation. Then the shooting started already in the concert hall, below, on the left side of the stage.

VIDEO: In Moscow, before a concert, men wearing camouflage shot at people

I saw a straight line of fire at people. Everyone started to lie down [ant grindų], we fell on top of each other in the aisle and then began to coordinate the forward movement of the crowd. At the same time, we realized that they might enter through any door with automatons, so we tried to move towards the nearest exit upstairs. Slowly, crawling, with goose steps, we left the hall.

Shots might still be heard in some places, it was not safe to run there. We ran to the technical part of Crocus, towards the balconies. People were panicking, some were crying, some were calling relatives, some were waiting for the elevator that was not working. Anyway, we ended up in a big dark room.

When we left, the fire was already burning – we might smell smoke and burning. In total it took us regarding 20-25 minutes to get out.

Finally we found some kind of technical stairs, we had to break down the door because the doors were closed everywhere. Outside, everyone began to disperse in different directions, and already at that time I might see huge balls of smoke. As I ran past the front of the Crocus, I saw people running and knocking on the windows who didn’t know how to get out because all the other doors were closed.

VIDEO: People can’t get out of the Crocus City Hall Concert Hall

About the attackers: It was definitely a group of people, many shots were heard. They wore brown clothes or brown waistcoats. We were in the balcony and the shooters were close to the stage – quite far from us. And there was exactly a series of machine guns through the crowd of people – they went from the entrance to the hall along the parterre towards the stage, they drove people to the center of the hall.”

There was panic

One of the survivors of the terrorist attack told regarding her escape from the hall full of people, where the performance of the rock band “Picnic” was supposed to start.

She told Telegram channel 112 that people dressed in camouflage started shooting at spectators who were late for the concert.

According to Polina L., she came to the Crocus City Hall concert with her mother and a young man. When they entered the hall, the shooting started.

Reuters/Scanpix photo/Attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall concert hall

“Men dressed in camouflage clothing shot at those who were late, panic began, people ran and hid. They ran right over the corpses. We got a car and drove a couple of kilometers, we were afraid that they would shoot on the street as well,” she said.

People screamed

The independent Russian publication Meduza published the story of Olga, who was in the concert hall at the time of the attack:

“When it all started, I was already sitting in my seat in the hall and I didn’t immediately understand what was happening. About five minutes before the concert started, there was a strange noise – at first I thought it was [“Picnic”] the fan club is doing something, as often happens in concerts.

Then there were sounds like firecrackers – I didn’t immediately realize that it was [buvo] shots. Judging by the way the shots sounded, they were quite far from me – apparently in the hall. Then the staff ran across the hall and escorted everyone to the stage, through which they managed to get to the exit. I might hear other people screaming as I ran. I didn’t see any injuries.

I was very lucky to get a ticket in the sixth row at the edge – no one was blocking the exit, I was able to quickly exit the stage, run to the road and taxi out before the fire. At that time, the police were already approaching the building.

I remember that there were people of very different ages in the hall – both the elderly and even those with small children. I hope they managed to escape.”

A story from the VIP box

Ivan, whose name has been changed, was in the VIP box of the concert hall at the time of the attack. His story was published by Meduza.

“I was in the VIP box. I heard machine gun fire and shots. There is a camera in the VIP box that shows the stage – people were seen rushing from the hall to the stage. A stampede ensued, no one from security [minios] didn’t rule

We started barricading ourselves in our lodge. Very quickly, literally within ten minutes, the smoke started rising. There were more and more of them. As I understand it, something was thrown into the hall and everything caught fire.

We mightn’t leave the lodge through the VIP exit because there were gunshots. Everyone went to another exit that leads to the lobby. With a girl – the only one [iš personalo]who helped us, we were the last to go.

We didn’t know where to run. Everything in the lobby was already covered in smoke. Everything happened very quickly. Shortly following we got outside, two fire trucks and the first ambulance showed up to take the woman who was lying down. I don’t know if she was hurt [kovotojų]or was injured during the rush.

The roof quickly caught fire. We tried to go around [pastatą] from the other side to get into the car. We saw the first people with guns – they were police officers, standing and smoking. We asked if we might pass. They replied, “Go if you want or don’t.” I didn’t see the Russian Guard,” said the witness.