On Friday, several gunmen burst into a large concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow and opened fire on the crowd, killing at least 40 people and injuring more than 100, days after President Vladimir Putin said the venue was set on fire. A brazen attack was carried out. He consolidated his grip on power through a highly orchestrated electoral landslide.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called the attack a “huge tragedy” and said state authorities were investigating it as a terrorist attack. The attack, which caused the roof to collapse and a concert hall to burst into flames, was Russia's deadliest attack in years and came as the country's war in Ukraine entered its third year.
The extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on related social media channels. In a statement released by the group's Armaq news agency, the group said it attacked a large Christian gathering in the Russian city of Krasnogorsk on the outskirts of Moscow, leaving hundreds of people dead and injured. The veracity of the claim could not be immediately confirmed.
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A U.S. official told CBS News that the U.S. has information that supports Islamic State's claim of responsibility for the attack and there is no reason to doubt that claim. U.S. officials also acknowledged that the United States had provided information about a potential attack to Russia under its intelligence community warning obligations.
National Security Council spokesperson Adrian Watson confirmed this in a statement provided to CBS News Friday evening.
“Earlier this month, the U.S. government received information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow that may have targeted large gatherings, including concerts, which prompted the State Department to We have issued a public advisory,” Watson said. “The U.S. government also shared this information with Russian authorities, consistent with its long-standing 'duty to warn' policy.”
A U.S. law enforcement official told CBS News there is no known threat to the United States from the Moscow attacks.
Russia's Federal Security Service, the country's main security and counter-terrorism agency, said 40 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the attack at Crocus Town Hall, a large music hall in Moscow's west end.
According to Russian news agencies, the attackers threw explosives, causing a massive fire in the hall, which can accommodate 6,000 people. Video from outside showed huge plumes of smoke billowing into the night sky and buildings on fire. The streets were lit up with the flashing blue lights of dozens of fire trucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles.
The attack occurred as a crowd gathered for a performance by the famous Russian rock band Picnic. Russian news reports said concertgoers were evacuated, but an unknown number may have been caught in the fire.
Prosecutors said several men wearing combat fatigues entered the concert hall and opened fire on concertgoers.
A large fire is seen above Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow, Russia, on Friday, March 22, 2024. Sergey Vedyashkin/AP
Repeated gunshots could be heard in videos posted on Russian media and Telegram channels. One of the images showed two men carrying rifles moving through the venue. Another video showed a man saying his attackers had started a fire inside the auditorium as gunshots rang out in the background.
Other videos showed up to four hat-wearing assailants armed with assault rifles firing at screaming people at close range.
Russian media said the concert hall's security guards were not armed and some may have been killed when the attack began. It was not immediately clear what happened to the attackers, but some Russian media outlets suggested they fled before special forces or riot police arrived.
Russian authorities said security has been stepped up at Moscow's airports, train stations and the capital's vast metro system. Moscow's mayor has canceled all large gatherings, and theaters and museums have been closed for the weekend. Other regions of Russia also tightened security.
Elmrod Usvaliyev/Anadolu, via Getty Images
The Kremlin has not blamed anyone for the attack, but some Russian lawmakers were quick to accuse Ukraine of being behind it. Hours before the attack, Russian forces launched a sweeping barrage on Ukraine's electricity system, crippled the country's largest hydroelectric power plants and other energy facilities and left more than a million people without power.
White House National Security Council Press Secretary John Kirby said Friday that he could not yet discuss specifics, but said, “The footage is simply awful. It's painful to watch.”
“Our thoughts are with the victims of this horrific, horrific shooting incident,” Kirby said. “There are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters who haven't received the news yet. It's going to be a tough day.”
The attack follows a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow earlier this month, warning Americans to visit the Russian capital in light of “imminent” plans by extremists to target large rallies in Moscow. The warning was repeated in several other countries, urging people to avoid crowded places. embassy in the west.
Asked about the embassy's notice issued on March 7, Kirby referred the question to the State Department, adding, “I do not believe it is related to this particular attack.”
Asked whether Washington had advance information about the attack, Kirby said, “I don't know if we had advance information about this horrific attack.”
In the early 2000s, Russia was rocked by a series of deadly terrorist attacks during ongoing fighting against separatists in the Russian region of Chechnya.
In October 2002, Chechen militants took approximately 800 people hostage in a Moscow theater. Two days later, Russian special forces stormed the building, killing 129 hostages and 41 Chechen fighters, most of them from the narcotic gas used by Russian forces to subdue the attackers.
Then, in September 2004, about 30 Chechen militants occupied a school in Beslan in southern Russia and took hundreds of hostages. The siege ended in bloodshed two days later, with more than 330 people killed, about half of them children.
CBS News' David Martin, Andy Tryey and Olivia Gazis contributed to this report.