It was a little before eight o’clock, and the Crocus City Hall concert hall was filling up before Friday night’s rock concert by the Picnic band, bbc.com reports.

“Some people dressed in brown, I don’t know who they were – terrorists, military, whoever – entered the hall and started shooting people with machine guns,” said photographer Dave Primov, who witnessed the attack from an upstairs balcony .

Gunmen had just crossed the area in front of the performance hall, opening fire at random, killing and wounding audience members as they entered the venue.

“We rushed to the children, stretched and began to erect barricades from tables and chairs”

About 6,200 tickets were sold for the concert, but security at the entrance quickly disappeared. One of the four guards said that his colleagues hid behind a billboard: “These attackers walked 10 meters away from us and started randomly shooting people on the first floor.”

No one knew how many attackers there were. But the video, taken from the top floor, shows four men in camouflage walking separately, a few meters apart, on the beige floor.

The main attacker targets the people crowding around the windows. These are the first victims of Russia’s bloodiest attack on civilians in recent years.

Many of the killed and wounded were from Krasnohorsk, Khimki and other nearby towns on the northwestern outskirts of Moscow.

Then a second assailant joined him, and a third calmly followed, carrying a rucksack on his back. A fourth man handed him a rifle, and they walked through uncontrolled metal detectors into the hall.

The woman was with her 11-year-old daughter, who was buying ice cream at the cafe near the entrance, when they heard a noise and someone shouted for them to get off.

“We rushed to the children, lay down and started building barricades from tables and chairs, and several wounded people ran up to us,” she told the BBC.

“When we left, we were still being shot at”

The concert in the hall was due to start in a few minutes, and some thought the noise might be part of the show.

Sofiko Kvirikashvili heard what at first seemed to her to be “some endless explosion of firecrackers – I entered the hall again, then again. For the third time, I realized that everyone in the hall began to run in all directions.”

Dave Primov, a photographer, said it was rush and panic. Some of those in the theater tried to stretch between the seats, but several armed men opened fire in the hall, this did not provide much protection.

Those who could from the hall made their way onto the stage. Others tried to find a higher exit, but some doors were closed. Eyewitnesses claim that the attack included both elderly people and children, all of whom were hit.

The woman was in one of the upper circles and ran to the stage where she saw a man in the box open fire: “I ran behind the curtain and one of the Crocus employees in uniform told us to run and I ran to the parking lot without my winter clothes on.” .

Margarita Bunova had just gotten her opera binoculars for the show when she heard what she thought were firecrackers, which then turned into rapid bursts that she and her husband identified as gunshots.

“Someone told us to run downstairs and it was pitch black … when we came out we were still being shot at.”

A man in the VIP box said he and other people barricaded themselves inside only to see smoke spreading throughout the theater.

Another man, Vitaly, saw the attack unfold from the balcony: “They threw some checkers, everything started to burn.”

Whether it was an incendiary bomb or some other incendiary device, the flames spread quickly. Due to the attack, firefighters were unable to approach the building. The fire soon spread to the roof, and it was visible on the Krasnohorsk skyline. Part of the roof collapsed, and the fire spread to the front of the building, destroying the top two floors.

Many of those in the hall ran across the lobby. The graphic video shows people rushing up escalators past two bodies lying on a couch.

Another video shows people fleeing as gunfire rings out around them. They manage to make it to the relative safety of the back of the building, where some huddle and others hold each other as they slip through the corridors.

“I heard noise and people running in the corridor. I ran with the crowd”

For a moment, the TV monitor shows the chaos in front of the stage. There are no signs of Russian police or special forces anywhere in the building.

The survivors climbed the ladder and came to the commercial entrance of Crocus City Hall. One man was seen vomiting while the others called their loved ones and left.

Dance troupe assistant Eva was backstage when the attackers broke into the hall. “We were in the fitting room, a crowd ran past us. I heard a noise and people running down the hall; we took our clothes and ran with the crowd.’

Initially, it was announced that all members of the band “Piknik” were alive and well, but later, according to unconfirmed data, it happened that one of the musicians went missing.

As the death toll exceeded 100 and the wounded 200, the scale and indiscriminate nature of the massacre became more apparent both inside and outside the hall. According to the first official list of the dead, the oldest victim was 70 years old, and children were among the dead and wounded.

A photo of a white Renault car with two passengers appeared on social media linked to Russian special services.

In a brief statement, the Islamic State jihadist group said it was behind the attack, without specifying which branch it belonged to. This coincided with US intelligence that indicated that IS wanted to attack Russia. Two weeks earlier, the US warned of a possible attack targeting “large gatherings” in Moscow, although Russian officials complained that the information did not contain specific details.

Ukraine quickly denied any involvement, insisting that its attacks were confined to the battlefield.

But the FSB of Russia claimed that the attackers tried to get from Russia to Ukraine and had “relevant contacts” in that country. A number of people were detained, including four alleged attackers, the FSB reports.

Returning to the scene on Saturday, Margarita Bunova and her husband Pavlo said that the first thing they did when they got home was hug their children.

It was only on Saturday afternoon in Moscow that the president addressed the Russian public, speaking of an entire grieving nation.

He compared the killers to the Nazis of the Second World War and said that no one can undermine the unity of Russia. He added that Sunday will be a day of national mourning. (News.ro)