Gunfire and blaze at Moscow concert hall, reports say

TheDudeV2@lemmy.ca to News@lemmy.world – 115 points –
bbc.com

Deaths and injuries have been reported after a gun attack at a concert hall near Moscow, Russian media say.

At least four people dressed in camouflage opened fire at the Crocus City Hall, social media video verified by the BBC shows.

Video obtained by Reuters news agency shows a large blaze and smoke rising from the hall.

Russia's Foreign Ministry described the incident as a "terrorist attack". Specialist police are at the scene

Footage on social media showed gunmen inside the concert hall while state media reported that some people were still inside.

Tass news agency reported a third of the concert venue is on fire and the roof is almost completely ablaze.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the international community to condemn the incident, which it called "a monstrous crime".

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the images of the shooting were "horrible and hard to watch".

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Time for Putin to fill the concert hall with poison gas.

There's precedent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis

I'm not gonna beat up on Moscow for that one. Probably wasn't the best handling, but they had no incentive to mishandle it. It was a difficult hostage situation, and it could have also played out worse, as there were bombs in the theater.

It's hard to estimate an exact amount of gas that would incapacitate one person without killing someone else.

I'd like to think that we'd have done better than kill off a ton of the hostages in a similar situation, but we've also dicked up some hostage situations too, even where we've got lots of resources and time to plan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege

2 more...

ISIS has claimed responsibility, though they have not yet provided evidence to support this.