BREAKING: ATTACK AT CONCERT VENUE IN MOSCOW - MANY DEAD - COMPLEX IN FLAMES - LEADERS ASK TERRORISM OR FALSE FLAG?

COMPILED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES:


ABC NEWS: A shooting followed by an explosion were reported at Moscow's Crocus City Hall -- one of the biggest shopping and entertainment complexes in Russia -- on Friday evening, according to Russian state media. Russia's foreign ministry called the shooting and explosion a "terrorist attack."



Most of the building is engulfed in fire and the roof partially collapsed, Russian news agency Interfax reported.

More than 70 ambulance teams were sent to the sight of the attack, the governor of the Moscow region reported.

Several gunmen burst into the concert hall and opened fire with automatic weapons, state news outlet RIA Novosti reported.

Attackers then threw a grenade or incendiary bomb, starting a fire in the hall, according to Russian state media.

No official numbers on deaths or injuries have been released.

In Podolsk, near Moscow, public events were canceled due to the incident at Crocus City Hall, the head of the district said. The mayor of Moscow also cancelled all "sports, cultural and other mass events," in Moscow for the weekend.

The White House is aware of the incident in Moscow but has limited information as of now, according to National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby.

"The images are just horrible. And just hard to watch, and our thoughts, obviously, are going to be with the - the victims of this terrible, terrible shooting attack," Kirby said.

Kirby also reiterated the State Department's warning that all Americans in Moscow should avoid large gatherings, saying "they should stay put where they are, and stay plugged into the State Department for any additional updates and information."

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow had issued a warning on March 7, advising U.S. citizens to avoid large gatherings for 48 hours, saying extremists have "imminent plans" to target large scale gatherings in Moscow.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

UPDATES:
News outlets on social media app Telegram posted graphic videos that appeared to show several people being killed by the unidentified men and cited unverified death tolls several times higher than the FSB’s. Videos from outside the building showed an enormous blaze engulfing the roof, sending smoke billowing out into the night sky.


Officials described the attack as an act of terrorism. Some of them speculated that Ukraine, the country Russia launched a full-scale invasion against two years ago, was responsible, without providing any evidence.


Kyiv immediately denied any involvement. Dmitry Medvedev, a former president and current deputy chair of Russia’s security council, demanded the “total elimination of the terrorists and repressions against their families”. “If it is determined that these were the terrorists of the Kyiv regime [ . . . ] they must all be founded and mercilessly destroyed as terrorists, including officials from the country behind this evil deed,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration, said “Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall”, in a post on X. “It makes no sense whatsoever.”


Ukrainian Presidential Advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak has stated that Ukraine had nothing to do with the Terrorist Attack on the Crocus Concert Hall tonight in the Russian Capital of Moscow.

Last week, the U.S. State Department, through the embassy there issued a notice to all Americans in Moscow to avoid any large gatherings, concerts, obviously shopping centers, anything like that, simply for their own safety."

The U.S. has repeatedly urged its citizens to leave Russia amid growing tensions between the two countries over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago and the United States’ support of Kyiv in the war.

The embassy’s warning came on the same day that Russia’s Federal Security Service said it foiled a plot by an Islamic State-linked group to attack a synagogue in Moscow.

“A stop was put to the activity” by the group, Wilayat Khorasan, in Russia’s Kaluga region, just southwest of Moscow, the Federal Security Service said in a statement, Russian news agency TASS reported.

The statement also said the terror group “put up armed resistance to Russian FSB staff and as a result were neutralized by return fire."

It’s not clear if that incident and the U.S. warning are related.