A terrorist attack took place in a shopping centre in Moscow on March 22nd, at around 8 pm. Four men in camouflage clothing drove up to the entrance of Crocus City Hall in a white Renault and opened fire on the people standing outside. Shamsidin Fariduni, Dalerjohn Mirzoev, Rachabalizoda Murodali and Muhammadsobir Faizov entered Crocus City Hall, killing one of the guards and tens of people at the doors.
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The men quickly made their way to the concert hall, not showing mercy to anyone. It was later revealed by the owner of Crocus City that the guards did not have weapons, as by protocol, they were only allowed to call an emergency service of the shopping centre in case of a situation such as this one, and not take action involving weapons themselves (A. Agalarov, 2024) Why the emergency services never showed up, however, still remains unclear (A. Hinstein, 2024).
Having heard the commotion, many audience members hid behind the stage and were evacuated from the building through an emergency exit backstage. The musical group managed to escape as they were already backstage at the time, however one of the managers of the band lost contact with the rest of the company, and is believed to have been killed within the first minutes of the shooting.
Arguments and Facts / Victor Mikhalev / Аргументы и Факты
As the concert hall was of a large size, suited to fit 6200 seated audience members and about 2000 more standing, a big percentage of the crowd was unable to reach the stage in time and were shot on the spot, as one of the terrorists opened fire from the centre of the stage. Many people tried to exit through the doors at the top of the concert hall, however were met by the killers blocking the exits. However many others remained hidden behind the seats and managed to wait out the attack.
As human survival instincts work, everybody acted differently. “We hid under the coats in the cloakroom for a while until it quieted down and then security announced the evacuation. Kind of like seven minutes in hell. I climbed over the stand and followed the panicking crowd. Didn’t even run.” One of the visitors published on her telegram channel, with video proof of people being evacuated.
An act of heroism occurred, when three of the terrorists left the concert hall, and one remained. A visitor who was attending the concert with his wife, neutralised one of the attackers, while he stopped to reload his machine gun. “I saw the terror in my wife’s eyes and realised I had to do something.” The man snuck up to the terrorist from behind and tackled him to the ground, taking away his weapon. Multiple witnesses have confirmed his story.
But grown men were not the only heroes of the tragedy, as many school students who worked at the mall formed groups to evacuate people, claiming that they underwent drills for such events (Litomin 2024) Unfortunately, however, a big percentage of people did not make the evacuation groups, as they hid in enclosed spaces such as broom closets and toilets. Most of them suffocated because of the toxic smoke from the fire, before the rescue team got to them, sending final messages to their families, such as “We’re running out of air. Mum, I’m so sorry.” (Perevozchikova 2024). It was later revealed that out of the 143 people dead, only around 40 passed away from gunshot wounds (Podlesny 2024).
Several minutes later, Fariduni, Mirzoev, Murodali and Faizov were seen heading towards the exit, brutally murdering anyone they still saw alive, switching their weapons from guns to knives (Skripak 2024) They blended in with the crowd, sat in their car and fled, running over an eight year old boy, who had managed to escape the concert earlier (Yakovleva 2024). The entire infernish occurance lasted less than fifteen minutes.
The fire spread from the concert hall throughout 12 000 sq. metres, as no one was allowed to enter the building until it was confirmed that there were no remaining threats. The rescue team only managed to fully put out the fire by morning.
At 23:08 the terrorist car was spotted on the “M-3 Ukraine” highway, leading towards Bryansk, revealing that they had travelled 300 km in two hours. A ten minute car chase began when the car was spotted, and ended with the arrest of one terrorist on the spot, and the others within the next few minutes, as they attempted to flee into the woods.
Евразия Сегодня / BAZA Telegram / Eurasia Today
Their identities were soon revealed in the court of law, one of the terrorists was only 19 years old. Most had families. They claimed that they were to be paid 150 thousand Russian rubles for the mass murder (Kuchishev 2024). Many theories and accusations emerged on who organised the terrorist attack, however the complete truth still remains unclear.