What We Know about the Shooting at a Concert Venue Near Moscow

A Russian policeman guards near the burned Crocus City Hall concert venue following a terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, Russia, 23 March 2024. (EPA)
A Russian policeman guards near the burned Crocus City Hall concert venue following a terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, Russia, 23 March 2024. (EPA)
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What We Know about the Shooting at a Concert Venue Near Moscow

A Russian policeman guards near the burned Crocus City Hall concert venue following a terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, Russia, 23 March 2024. (EPA)
A Russian policeman guards near the burned Crocus City Hall concert venue following a terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, Russia, 23 March 2024. (EPA)

Armed men burst into the Crocus City Hall near Moscow on Friday, killing at least 93 people and injuring many dozens more in the deadliest attack in Russia since the 2004 Beslan school siege.

What do we know about the attack?

THE ATTACK

The men, armed with Kalashnikov automatic weapons, arrived at the Crocus City Hall at around 7:40 p.m. (1640 GMT) in a minivan. Russian media said there were up to five men.

Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov informed President Vladimir Putin that there were four attackers, the Kremlin said.

They began shooting civilians at point-blank range. They shot people through the glass doors near the entrance turnstiles to the venue, witnesses said, then moved on towards the concert hall itself.

Videos showed the men shooting screaming civilians with automatic weapons. Bodies were then seen motionless.

As people took their seats for a concert by Soviet-era rock group "Picnic", shooting could be heard inside the 6,200-seat hall where all the tickets had been sold out. The group had been planning to perform their new hit "Afraid of Nothing."

The attackers were shown on videos from the scene methodically shooting at concertgoers as people rushed for the exits.

The men then set fire to the concert hall, pouring a liquid on the curtains and chairs before igniting it.

Reuters video showed flames leaping above the hall and plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky as the blue lights of hundreds of emergency vehicles flashed across the night.

The fire, which spread across nearly 13,000 square meters took hours to contain. The roof collapsed.

DEATH TOLL

Russia's investigative committee said on Saturday the death toll was 93.

Some sources said 145 people were injured. The Moscow Region said 121 people had been wounded. Earlier it had said 60 of the injured were in a critical condition.

RESPONSIBILITY

ISIS, the militant group that once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack, the group's Amaq agency said on Telegram.

"ISIS fighters attacked a large gathering of Christians in the city of Krasnogorsk on the outskirts of the Russian capital, Moscow, killing and wounding hundreds and causing great destruction to the place before they withdrew to their bases safely," the statement said.

The United States has intelligence confirming ISIS’s claim of responsibility for a deadly shooting at a concert near Moscow, two US officials said on Friday.

The officials said the United States had warned Russia in recent weeks about the possibility of an attack - a move they said prompted the US embassy in Moscow to issue a warning to Americans.

Two weeks ago the US embassy in Russia warned that "extremists" had imminent plans for an attack in Moscow.

Hours before the embassy warning, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had foiled an attack on a Moscow synagogue by ISIS’s affiliate in Afghanistan, which is known as ISIS-Khorasan or ISIS-K and seeks a caliphate across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.

"We did warn the Russians appropriately," one of the US officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

THE ATTACKERS

Russian media said there were five men. Reuters was unable to confirm just how many there were.

Russian investigators showed pictures from inside the hall showing an automatic weapon, vests with multiple spare magazines and bags of spent bullet casings that had been collected from the scene.

A grainy picture was published by some Russian media of two of the alleged attackers in a white car.

The FSB said 11 people had been detained, including all four of the attackers.

Russian lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein, a former journalist, said that the white Renault used by the suspects was found in a village in the Bryansk region, about 340 km (210 miles) southwest of Moscow.

"One terrorist was detained on the spot, the rest fled into the forest," Khinshtein said.

He said a pistol, a Kalashnikov magazine and passports of Tajik citizens were found in the car. Reuters was unable to verify that information.



France Accuses Iran of ‘Repression’ in Sentence for Nobel Laureate

People cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP)
People cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP)
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France Accuses Iran of ‘Repression’ in Sentence for Nobel Laureate

People cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP)
People cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP)

France accused Iran on Monday of "repression and intimidation" after a court handed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi a new six-year prison sentence on charges of harming national security.

Mohammadi, sentenced Saturday, was also handed a one-and-a-half-year prison sentence for "propaganda" against Iran's system, according to her foundation.

"With this sentence, the Iranian regime has, once again, chosen repression and intimidation," the French foreign ministry said in a statement, describing the 53-year-old as a "tireless defender" of human rights.

Paris is calling for the release of the activist, who was arrested before protests erupted nationwide in December after speaking out against the government at a funeral ceremony.

The movement peaked in January as authorities launched a crackdown that activists say has left thousands dead.

Over the past quarter-century, Mohammadi has been repeatedly tried and jailed for her vocal campaigning against Iran's use of capital punishment and the mandatory dress code for women.

Mohammadi has spent much of the past decade behind bars and has not seen her twin children, who live in Paris, since 2015.

Iranian authorities have arrested more than 50,000 people as part of their crackdown on protests, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).


Iran's Supreme Leader Urges Iranians to Show 'Resolve' against Foreign Pressure

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei on (File Photo/Supreme Leader's website).
Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei on (File Photo/Supreme Leader's website).
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Iran's Supreme Leader Urges Iranians to Show 'Resolve' against Foreign Pressure

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei on (File Photo/Supreme Leader's website).
Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei on (File Photo/Supreme Leader's website).

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Monday called on his compatriots to show "resolve" ahead of the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution this week.

Since the revolution, "foreign powers have always sought to restore the previous situation", Ali Khamenei said, referring to the period when Iran was under the rule of shah Reza Pahlavi and dependent on the United States, AFP reported.

"National power is less about missiles and aircraft and more about the will and steadfastness of the people," the leader said, adding: "Show it again and frustrate the enemy."


UK PM's Communications Director Quits

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech at Horntye Park Sports Complex in St Leonards, Britain, February 05, 2026. Peter Nicholls/Pool via REUTERS
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech at Horntye Park Sports Complex in St Leonards, Britain, February 05, 2026. Peter Nicholls/Pool via REUTERS
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UK PM's Communications Director Quits

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech at Horntye Park Sports Complex in St Leonards, Britain, February 05, 2026. Peter Nicholls/Pool via REUTERS
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech at Horntye Park Sports Complex in St Leonards, Britain, February 05, 2026. Peter Nicholls/Pool via REUTERS

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's director of communications Tim Allan resigned on Monday, a day after Starmer's top aide Morgan McSweeney quit over his role in backing Peter Mandelson over his known links to Jeffrey Epstein.

The loss of two senior aides ⁠in quick succession comes as Starmer tries to draw a line under the crisis in his government resulting from his appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to the ⁠US.

"I have decided to stand down to allow a new No10 team to be built. I wish the PM and his team every success," Allan said in a statement on Monday.

Allan served as an adviser to Tony Blair from ⁠1992 to 1998 and went on to found and lead one of the country’s foremost public affairs consultancies in 2001. In September 2025, he was appointed executive director of communications at Downing Street.