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Terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall

People didn’t instantly realize shooting had begun — eyewitness about concert hall attack

Visitors of the Crocus City Hall music venue, who were far from the entrance, at first mistook the sounds of gunshots for installation work, one of the eyewitnesses said

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. Visitors of the Crocus City Hall music venue, who were far from the entrance, at first mistook the sounds of gunshots for installation work, one of the eyewitnesses told TASS.

"First, we started hearing typical loud pops, but it was impossible to understand that they were gunshots. We thought that something was falling, as exhibitions were being dismantled at that moment, and someone seemed to be dropping something large. Then, the bangs were getting more and more frequent. Suddenly, there was a scream, and the bangs started to be heard as bursts. Then it became clear that it was shooting," Mikhail Semyonov told TASS.

According to the man, he entered the building though one of the entrances where there were no security guards.

"I have to say that when we were going in, the doors were open and there was a babushka standing there, who showed that Picnic (the rock band performing in the concert hall - TASS) was over there," he said.

A terrorist attack was carried out at the Crocus City Hall music venue in the city of Krasnogorsk near Moscow on Friday evening. Unidentified gunmen armed with assault rifles went on a shooting spree. An explosion rocked the building, starting a fire. According to the FSB preliminary information, 40 people were killed and more than 100 injured. The special services are conducting a search operation. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin canceled all mass events in the capital in the next two days, and a number of other Russian regions followed suit.

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