Frightening news from Moscow tonight.. At least 40 killed in theatre shooting

[Blueballoons1]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/22/moscow-concert-hall-shooting-blast

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-68642036

Anyone else following this?

Yes, what shocking news.

Also 100 wounded. I'm just looking on BBC verify for the details.

That’s a very serious incident. My thoughts are with the poor people involved.

The obvious question is ; who would do this, & why? Chechens? Ukrainian special forces? Russian special forces doing a false flag operation? As with the destruction of the Nordstream pipeline, I doubt we will ever find out the truth.

Scary times.. So many groups could be behind this. Awful for the victims caught up in the attack & those who have lost their lives.
What show was on in Moscow?

I feel for the victims and their families, but my first thought when I hear something like this is, please let it be a wider attack on the regime and let it come to an end.

It could be any one of those, couldn't it?
The trouble is, as you've said - finding the truth.

It was Piknik playing. Popular late 70's rock/prog rock. Thoughts are with everyone there.

Gosh absolutely awful, I wonder if there are a lot more casualties to come given the huge number of wounded and the fire. Devastating I bet it was mostly younger people.

A wider attack on the regime wouldn't attack civilians at a concert, and I wouldn't want an opposition that could do such a thing to succeed. It's going to be very hard to trust information on this. Terrorists or Putin looking for an excuse for some kind of crackdown on whatever group or element that gets the blame? When it comes to Russia it could genuinely be either.

I agree, I'm just clutching at straws hoping for signs of instability I suppose.

I think who was playing is going to be irrelevant. Both US and UK had warned there was credible intelligence that a terrorist attack on a large venue was imminent.

TBH it's more likely to be over 30's as the main audience. Picnik aren't a young band - but they'd just released this:
https://www.last.fm/music/%D0%9F%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA/%D0%9D%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%BE,+%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%BE+%D0%BD%D0%B5+%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%B9%D1%81%D1%8F+-+Single

(the band are all safely accounted for)

Crazy. At this point I wouldn't put it past Putin to be behind something like this to fuck up the narrative. Terrifying.

I was wondering as I thought it may be due to the nature of the band that was playing but seeing as it was Piknik obviously not.
Scary times.

Very reminiscent of the Bataclan attack in Paris.

Since we know absolutely Putin has already blown up tower blocks in Moscow it's hard to see this as anything other than a government operation.

Poor bloody victims though, first murdered then used in death by a murderous regime

It's scary. Security, censorship. & espionage is so tight nothing would be able to be planned that would go unnoticed by Putins police & tech aids.

I seriously doubt this was Ukraine, not that it will matter to Putin.

@WinterMorn I don't think it was either.. I think anything planned on there scale would very easily be detected..

Plus this would go against the grain and cost them a huge amount of support. Nobody would countenance or stomach this sort of incident.

Trying to get men to enlist by manipulative means

It is bad and horrible, but hopefully not on the level of the events in Paris which was an ISIS co-ordinated attack across three places, with the biggest one they were successful at being the Bataclan, which is the part we tend to remember, but 40 of the fatalities and many injuries were at the other two sites.
Had they managed to enter the National Stadium as they attempted to, fatalities and injuries would have been even worse. I don't remember who was playing but it was an international football match on at the time.
I apologize for being pedantic, but think it's important in how we remember.

It's interesting that the BBC says the US was warning of heightened risk of attacks at big gatherings. Presumably if they were picking up noise about it they have some idea of where it's coming from.

Islamic State have just claimed responsibility according to SKY