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At least 40 Dead In Concert Shooting

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Gunmen opened fire at a rock concert in a Moscow suburb Friday killing at least 40 people, wounding 100 and setting off an inferno in the theatre, authorities said.

Attackers dressed in camouflage uniforms entered the building, opened fire and threw a grenade or incendiary bomb, according to a journalist for the RIA Novosti news agency at the scene.

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Fire quickly spread through the Crocus City concert hall in the Krasnogorsk suburb in the north of the Russian capital, which can hold several thousand people and has hosted top international artists.

According to preliminary information, 40 people were killed and more than 100 were injured as a result of a terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall,” according to the FSB security service, quoted by Interfax news agency and other Russian media.

Authorities said a “terrorist” investigation had been started and President Vladimir Putin was receiving “constant” updates on the attack, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

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Telegram news channels Baza and Mash, which are close to security forces, showed video images of flames and black smoke pouring from the hall.

READ ALSO: Police In Standoff With Suspect In Two Fatal US Shootings

Other images showed two men walking through the hall with at least one person left on the ground near the entrance. Concert-goers were also seen hiding behind seats or trying to escape.

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Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there had been a “terrible tragedy” at the concert by Russian rock band Piknik and cancelled all public events in the city for the weekend.

Security services quoted by Interfax news agency said between two and five people “wearing tactical uniforms and carrying automatic weapons” opened fire on guards at the entrance and then started shooting at the audience.

“People who were in the hall were led on the ground to protect themselves from the shooting for 15 or 20 minutes,” the RIA Novosti journalist was quoted as saying.

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People started crawling out when it was safe, the journalist reported.

READ ALSO: One Dead, 21 Injured In US Super Bowl Parade Shooting

Odious crime’

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About 100 people escaped through the theatre basement while others were sheltering on the the roof, the emergency services ministry said on its Telegram channel.

But about one third of the complex was ablaze, TASS news agency reported.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it had been a “bloody terrorist attack”.

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“The whole international community must condemn this odious crime,” she said on Telegram.

The US presidency called the attack “terrible” but said there was no immediate sign of any link to the conflict in Ukraine.

“There is no indication at this time that Ukraine, or Ukrainians were involved in the shooting,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington.

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READ ALSO: Rivers: Scavenger In Shooting Spree After Snatching Inspector’s Rifle, Kills One

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev vowed on Telegram that Ukraine’s top officials “must be found and ruthlessly destroyed as terrorists” if they were linked to the attack.

“I offer my condolences to the families of the dead,” said Moscow’s mayor as a major security operation was launched around the theatre and nearby shopping mall.

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TASS said that SOBR, special police forces and the OMON anti-riot squad had been sent to the Crocus hall.

It added that all the members of the rock band had been evacuated safely.

Orthodox church leader Patriarch Kirill was “praying for peace for the souls of the dead,” said his spokesman Vladimir Legoyda.

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Previous warnings

Moscow and other Russian cities have been the targets of previous attacks by Islamist groups but there have also been incidents without any clear political motive.

READ ALSO: One Killed As Sokoto Youths, Bandits Engage In Shootout

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Earlier this month, the US embassy in Russia warned “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow”, including concerts.

In 2002, Chechen separatist fighters took 912 people hostage in a Moscow theatre, the Dobrovka, demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from the region.

Special forces attacked the theatre to end the hostage taking and 130 people were killed, nearly all suffocated by a gas used by security forces to knock out the gunmen.

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Russia launched a military intervention in Ukraine in February 2022 and it has been the target of attacks along the border by anti-Kremlin forces.

Ukraine’s presidency and the Freedom of Russia Legion, whose fighters are part of Ukraine’s armed forces, denied any role in the concert hall attack.

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India Issues Health Alert After Spike In ‘brain-eating’ Amoeba Deaths

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India has issued a health alert after infections and deaths caused by a rare water-borne “brain-eating” amoeba doubled compared to last year in the southern state of Kerala.

Numbers are still tiny but Altaf Ali, a doctor who is part of a government task force to arrest the spread, told AFP that officials were “conducting tests on a large scale across the state to detect and treat cases”.

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Officials reported 19 deaths and 72 infections of the Naegleria fowleri amoeba this year, including nine deaths and 24 cases in September alone.

READ ALSO:India Test-fires Ballistic Missile, Capable Of Reaching All Of China

Last year, the amoeba killed nine people out of 36 reported cases.

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The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says it is often called a “brain-eating amoeba” because it can “infect the brain and destroy brain tissue”.

If the amoeba reaches the brain, it can cause an infection that kills over 95 per cent of those affected.

Infections are “very rare but nearly always fatal”, the CDC notes.

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READ ALSO:Indian Man Gets Death Sentence For Burning Wife Alive Over Skin Colour

The amoeba lives in warm lakes and rivers and is contracted by contaminated water entering the nose. It does not spread from person to person.

The World Health Organisation says that symptoms include headache, fever and vomiting, which rapidly progresses to “seizures, altered mental status, hallucinations, and coma”.

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“It’s worrying that new cases this year have emerged from across the state, as opposed to specific pockets in the past,” Ali said.

Since 1962, nearly 500 cases have been reported worldwide, mostly in the United States, India, Pakistan, and Australia.

AFP

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Gunmen On Motorbikes Kill 22 At Baptism Ceremony In Niger

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Gunmen on motorbikes shot dead 22 villagers in western Niger, most attending a baptism ceremony, local media and other sources said Tuesday.

The shootings happened on Monday in the Tillaberi region, near Burkina Faso and Mali, where jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group (IS) are active.

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A resident of the area told AFP that 15 people were killed first at a baptism ceremony in Takoubatt village.

The attackers then went to the outskirts of Takoubatt where they killed seven other people,” said the resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

READ ALSO:Two Nigerians Face Jail Terms In Liberia’s Piracy Trial

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Local media outlet Elmaestro TV reported a “gruesome death toll of 22 innocent people cowardly killed without reason or justification”.

“Once again, the Tillaberi region has been struck by barbarism, plunging innocent families into mourning and despair,” Nigerien human rights campaigner Maikoul Zodi said on social media.

Niger’s military leaders, who came to power two years ago in a coup, have struggled to contain jihadist groups in Tillaberi, despite maintaining a large army presence there.

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Around 20 soldiers were killed in the region last week.

READ ALSO:Nigerian Jailed In US Over $6m Inheritance Fraud

Human Rights Watch has urged Niger authorities to “do more to protect” civilians against deadly attacks.

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The rights monitoring group estimates that the Islamic State group has “summarily executed” more than 127 villagers and Muslim worshippers in Tillaberi in five attacks since March.

Meanwhile, the NGO ACLED, which tracks conflict victims worldwide, says around 1,800 people have been killed in attacks in Niger since October 2024 — three-quarters of them in Tillaberi.

Niger and its neighbours, Burkina Faso and Mali, also ruled by military coup leaders who claim to pursue a sovereignist policy, have expelled the French and American armies that were fighting alongside them against jihadism.

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Serbia Indicts Ex-minister, 12 Others Over Train Station Tragedy

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Serbian prosecutors filed an updated indictment on Tuesday against 13 people, including a former minister, over a fatal railway station roof collapse that has triggered a wave of anti-government protests.

The prosecution said all those indicted, among them former construction minister Goran Vesic, face charges of “serious crimes against public safety” over the tragedy that killed 16 people last November.

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“The indictment proposes that the Higher Court in Novi Sad order custody for all the defendants,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The roof collapse at the newly renovated station in Serbia’s second-largest city, Novi Sad, became a symbol of entrenched corruption and sparked almost daily protests.

READ ALSO:FG Panel Indicts AFN In Ofili’s Paris Olympics Omission

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Protesters first demanded a transparent investigation, but their calls soon escalated into demands for early elections.

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad initially filed an indictment at the end of December, but judges returned it in April, requesting more information.

The accused were released or placed under house arrest following the decision.

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The prosecutor’s office said it had complied with the judge’s request and had now completed the supplementary investigation.

READ ALSO:NDLEA Arrests Indian Businessman, 3 Others Over Alleged Trafficking Of N3.9bn Tramadol

The prosecutor specialising in organised crime and corruption in Belgrade is leading a separate, independent investigation into the tragedy.

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That investigation is focused on 13 people, including Vesic and another former minister, Tomislav Momirovic, who headed the Construction Ministry before him.

In March, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) launched a third, separate investigation into the possible misuse of EU funds for the station’s reconstruction.

AFP

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