Survivors have spoken of the horrors that rocked the Russian capital yesterday after gunmen opened fire at a concert hall in an assault that left at least 133 people dead and scores more wounded.
Responsibility for the terror attack at Crocus City Hall, which stands roughly 10 miles northwest of the centre of Moscow, has since been claimed Islamic State Khorasan, an Afghanistan-based ISIS affiliate.
Footage circulating on Russian Telegram channels appears to show victims and eyewitnesses describing how the attack unfolded.
One woman, pictured lying on a hospital bed, explains how she escaped after the assailants ‘ran in and started to shoot at people’, saying that she ‘dropped to the ground and pretended to be dead’ after the girl next to her had already been killed.
In another audio interview, an unidentified woman says: ‘Those who were closer to the glass doors [at the front of the venue] immediately fell down.
‘My husband had a gunshot wound in his shoulder and leg.’
Another woman described how she could see from the balcony of the concert hall’s interior that ‘there were bodies, there was blood.’
She went on: ‘We had to run away somewhere, and went into some kind of kitchen. We sat there hiding.
‘We stayed there for some time and then we had to move downstairs. We were there for about an hour and then we went inside.’
Russian state news agencies have since reported that 11 people have been arrested as suspects in the attack, including four people alleged to have been directly involved in the shooting.
After a significant delay, President Vladimir Putin has addressed the Russian people to allege that Ukraine was partly responsible for the atrocity.
Putin has claimed that the four gunmen were apprehended while attempting to flee Russia across the Ukrainian border.
He said: ‘They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.’
Kyiv has denied any involvement in the attack, accusing the Russian government of opportunism by using the atrocity as a grounds to solidify support for Putin’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
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