Crocus City Hall attack

2024 Crocus City Hall attack
Part of mass shootings in Europe, terrorism in Russia, and Islamic terrorism in Europe
Crocus City Hall in 2013 Crocus City Hall concert theatre in 2019
Location	Crocus City Hall, Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, Russia
Coordinates	55°49′33″N 37°23′25″E
Date	22 March 2024 (2024-03-22) 20:00 MSK (UTC+3)
Attack type	Mass shooting massacre bombing arson mass murder
Deaths	93+
Injured	145+
Perpetrators	IS-KP
No. of participants	4
Motive	Islamic terrorism, Islamic extremism

On 22 March 2024, at around 20:00 MSK (UTC+3), a coordinated attack occurred at the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, a Russian city on the western edge of Moscow. Several gunmen carried out a mass shooting on the people gathered at the venue and used incendiary devices to set the venue ablaze. The attack killed at least 93 people, with over 145 injured, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in Russia since the Beslan school siege in 2004.

Russia's Foreign Ministry called the incident a terrorist attack. The Islamic State – Khorasan Province (IS-KP or ISIS-K), a South-Central Asia-based regional affiliate of the Islamic State, claimed responsibility.

Background

See also: Terrorism in Russia

Russia was subject to deadly terror attacks in the early 2000s, including the Moscow theater hostage crisis in 2002 and the Beslan school siege in 2004. In 2015, Islamic State militants downed a Russian passenger jet Metrojet Flight 9268 killing all 224 people on board.

On 7 March 2024, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) announced that it had neutralized a terrorist cell linked to IS in Moscow, which had intended to attack a synagogue in the city. Hours later, the United States embassy in Moscow warned "that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts." That day, the United States also privately warned Russian officials of the danger of an impending attack from IS-KP from intelligence gathered earlier in March, under the US intelligence community's "duty to warn" requirement.

On 19 March, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the US embassy's warning "resembles outright blackmail and an intention to intimidate and destabilize our society."

US officials confirmed to the New York Times that the attack was related to the prior US warning. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said it was too early for the White House to comment on the attack.

Attack

File:2024 Crocus City Hall terrorist attack 1.jpg

Moscow firefighters over the fire site

File:2024 Crocus City Hall terrorist attack 4.jpg

Exterior of Crocus City Hall after the attack

Crocus City Hall was built in 2009 as a concert venue with a capacity of 6,200 people, it is one of the largest in the area. It is part of a larger block of shopping centers, restaurants, and other attractions called Crocus City.

On 22 March 2024, the Russian band Picnic was scheduled to play a sold-out show at Crocus City Hall. At around 20:00 MSK (UTC+3), before the band began their performance, masked gunmen in combat fatigues opened fire on the crowd using assault rifles. At the time of the attack, children and teenagers were also in the building for a ballroom dancing competition. The venue's security guards were unarmed, and it is believed that some of them were among those killed in the attack.

One witness described the attackers as bearded men. Amateur video footage taken at the event of the time verified by BBC Verify showed masked gunmen shooting indiscriminately in the entrance hall and auditorium. Other footage posted to Telegram showed men in military fatigues and baseball caps firing into crowds of screaming people. The assailants were also reported to have used incendiary devices, with an eyewitness claiming the assailants used petrol bombs to start a fire in the auditorium. Amateur video footage posted to social media sites showed huge fires and plumes of smoke coming from the building from the fires set by the assailants.

At 21:32, an explosion was reported, and a partial roof collapse followed at around 22:00. Moscow governor Andrey Vorobyov claimed the roof over the hall collapsed. Some early reports indicated that the gunmen barricaded themselves within the building.

At least 93 people were killed, and over 145 injured, with at least 60 people in critical condition. Aside from gunshot wounds, some of the deaths were caused by smoke inhalation. According to the Russian Minister of Health, Mikhail Murashko, five children were injured in the attack.

The members of Picnic later posted on Instagram that they and their management were "alive and safe," TASS reported that they had been evacuated.

Security response

Specialized police units from the Special Rapid Response Unit (SOBR) and Special Purposes Mobile Unit (OMON) were sent to the scene. Andrey Vorobyov, the governor of Moscow Oblast, went to the scene to set up a task force to handle the situation. The National Guard of Russia was also dispatched to search for the assailants, with a picture posted of the suspected assailants fleeing in a white Renault car.

Evacuation of the survivors was carried out by medical helicopters, with 70 ambulance crews reportedly being dispatched. An unknown number of people fled to the parking area from the stage, while others fled to the roof. Authorities evacuated approximately 100 people hiding in the basement. Firefighters prevented the fire from spreading. Three helicopters were deployed to dump water on the burning rooftop.

By 07:00 on 23 March, Andrey Vorobyov reported the fire had been contained and mostly extinguished. He added that the roof over the hall collapsed.

The National Guard of Russia was dispatched to search for the assailants, with a picture posted of the suspected assailants fleeing in a white Renault car. As of 23 March, 11 people have been detained, and the four suspected assailants in the white car were captured in Bryansk Oblast. However, they have yet to be identified.

Perpetrators

Two of the alleged perpetrators during the escape, captured by public CCTV

IS-KP claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement by Amaq News Agency, saying that the attackers "retreated to their bases safely." The group is a regional branch of the Islamic State, an international terrorist group active in South-Central Asia, primarily Afghanistan. US officials stated they had intelligence indicating that IS-KP had been planning an attack on the city. Colin Clarke from the independent Soufan Center think tank explained that Russia has been a focus of the group for some time, saying "ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years, frequently criticizing Putin in its propaganda."

The Russian newspaper Kommersant received information from government sources that the Ukraine-based Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) is suspected and Russian police officers started receiving search bulletins stating that the terrorists are "young men, Slavs, above average height, and possibly used fake beards and mustaches." Both the RVC and another anti-Kremlin militant group, the Freedom of Russia Legion, denied involvement in the attack. Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's deputy on the Security Council of Russia, wrote on the Telegram app that if those responsible for the attack turn out to be linked to Ukraine, "all of them must be found and ruthlessly destroyed as terrorists" and "official representatives of the state that committed such a crime" would also be punished.

Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote that Ukraine, which is currently at war with Russia, was not involved in the attack. The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence accused Russian special forces of organizing the attack on Putin's orders. The White House called the situation "terrible" and said there was no indication of Ukrainian involvement in the attack.

Aftermath

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin cancelled all weekend events in the city, and security was tightened across airports and train and subway stations serving the city. The Russian Ministry of Culture later cancelled events nationwide. In Saint Petersburg, shopping centers were closed, and Leningrad Oblast was put on high alert. Russian President Vladimir Putin wished those injured in the attack a speedy recovery and praised the doctors involved in treating the victims. The Investigative Committee of Russia launched a criminal terrorist probe into the attack. A spokesperson for Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church said that he was "praying for peace for the souls of the dead." Hundreds gathered in Moscow on 23 March to donate blood for the victims.

The U.S. embassy in Moscow expressed "sincere condolences to the Russian people," while advising its citizens to avoid the area as they were "severely limited" in their ability to assist US citizens due to the limits placed on US personnel's ability to travel within Russia. The British embassy in Moscow condemned the attacks and expressed its "sincere condolences to the relatives and loved ones of those hurt and killed in today’s events."

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova called for the international community to condemn the attack, which she called "a monstrous crime." The governments of several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, France, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, Taiwan, Palestine, China, Japan, Malaysia, as well as United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the shooting and expressed their condolences to the Russian people and families of the victims.

See also

• List of terrorist incidents linked to the Islamic State
• List of terrorist incidents in 2024