MOSCOW: The 4 armed males walked calmly in the direction of the metallic detectors at Crocus City Hall, firing their automated weapons point-blank in brief bursts at terrified civilians who fell screaming in a hail of bullets.
Close by, one witness named Natalya had simply taken off her coat and was standing in line on Friday (Mar 22) night on the inside entrance to the 6,200 seat live performance corridor exterior Moscow, the place Soviet-era rock group “Picnic” was to carry out its hit “Afraid of Nothing.”
“The pictures got here from behind us,” Natalya, who requested for her surname not for use, instructed Reuters. She was nearly to enter the stalls.
“It was loud, like a firecracker blast, fireworks, however like an automated burst. I may hear it proper behind me, not far-off,” Natalya mentioned.
Then Natalya ran for her life.
“Everybody was screaming; everybody was working,” she mentioned. She ran to the close by metro station by way of the chilly Moscow evening with out her coat and escaped. “I skilled horrible feelings. It’s merely a nightmare.”
Reuters was capable of piece collectively a few of what came about on the live performance corridor from interviews with witnesses, video footage from the scene and Russian official accounts and media reviews.
Greater than 143 folks have been killed and dozens extra injured within the deadliest assault in Russia because the 2004 Beslan faculty siege. Islamic State claimed accountability for the assault.