ISIS/Daesh terror group claims members carried out Russia concert hall shooting

By Esref Musa, Mehmet Burak Kocaoglu and Esra Tekin

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (AA) — The ISIS/Daesh terrorist organization said its members were behind an attack late Friday targeting a concert hall northwest of central Moscow in Russia.

The terror group said in a statement on its social media account that its members attacked the concert hall in Krasnogorsk, a city in the Moscow region.

- Attack during concert

Gunmen killed 40 people and injured 147 others in a shooting at a concert hall near Moscow, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced late Friday.

The incident took place in Krasnogorsk, the administrative center of the Moscow region, where the music band Picnic was performing at Crocus City Hall, according to preliminary information. The group was uninjured in the attack, law enforcement agencies said.

An explosion at the venue later caused a large fire. The country's Emergency Ministry said that about a third of the building was engulfed in flames, with several helicopters working to extinguish the blaze.

The fate of the shooters remains unknown, with reports claiming they managed to flee the scene.

Over 100 people have so far been evacuated from the building, the ministry added, with more people awaiting assistance on the roof.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said Friday that it was not involved in a deadly shooting attack that target a concert hall in Russia's Moscow region.

"Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall (Moscow Region, Russia). It makes no sense whatsoever," Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said in a statement on X following the late-night shooting that Russia has declared a "terrorist attack."​​​​​​​