At around 20:00 local time on Friday (March 22), a shooting occurred at the "Crocus City Hall" concert hall in Krasnogorsk, a suburb of the Russian capital Moscow.
According to the latest reports from Russian media, before the performance began, at least 5 male armed militants entered the building where the concert hall was located and used light weapons to shoot at the crowd. They also threw grenades or incendiary bombs, setting fire to the concert hall and causing a fire.
After the incident, the Moscow Special Response Force and Special Police Force entered a state of alert and rushed to the scene. The Federal Security Bureau (FSB) of the Russian Federation has stated that strong Russian departments are taking all necessary measures.
Source: TASS, Russia
At 3am Beijing time on Saturday, CCTV News quoted the Russian Federal Security Agency as saying that the shooting incident has resulted in 40 deaths and over 100 injuries.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has classified the incident as a terrorist attack, and the Russian Federal Investigation Commission has stated that it will conduct a criminal investigation into the concert hall shooting incident in accordance with the "terrorist acts" clause.
Russian presidential press secretary Peskov stated that Putin is aware of the situation related to the terrorist attack.
Two weeks early warning from the United States?
It is worth mentioning that two weeks ago, the US Embassy in Russia warned that "extremists" were plotting to launch attacks in the Russian capital in the next few days, and specifically mentioned "concerts".
Source: Reference message
On March 7th, the US Embassy in Russia issued a statement on its website stating, "There are reports that extremists are about to launch attacks on large-scale gatherings in Moscow, including concerts. The embassy is closely monitoring this and recommending that US citizens avoid participating in large-scale gatherings for the next 48 hours."
On the same day, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also summoned the US Ambassador to Russia, Lynn Tracy, and demanded that the US Embassy cut off all contacts with the three non-governmental organizations funded by the US.