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At least 40 people have been killed after gunmen burst into a concert hall in Moscow and fired at the crowd, according to Russia’s FSB security service.

The gunmen, wearing combat fatigues, also caused a huge blaze at the Crocus City Hall. Russian media reported the venue’s roof was collapsing.

The attack, which Russian authorities are investigating as terrorism, is Russia’s deadliest in recent years.

More than 100 were wounded, the FSB said. Russian media said children were among the dead, citing a Russian MP.

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Gunmen burst into concert hall

Footage taken inside the auditorium shows up to four gunmen firing automatic weapons as people crouch and hide behind seats.

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A Russian National Guard serviceman in front of Crocus City Hall. Pic: AP
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A Russian National Guard serviceman in front of the burning Crocus City Hall concert venue. Pic: AP

Russian authorities stand guard near the burning Crocus City Hall concert venue. Pic: Reuters
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Russian authorities at the scene. Pic: Reuters

In other videos posted by Russian media and Telegram channels, extended rounds of gunfire could be heard while men with rifles moved through the venue’s mall.

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Russian news reports said the attackers threw explosives, triggering the massive blaze at the venue, where flames and plumes of black smoke could be seen rising into the air.

Reports said concertgoers were being evacuated but an unknown number could have been trapped by the blaze.

All tickets in the 6,200-seat concert hall for a performance by Soviet-era rock group Picnic had been sold out.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the raid.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the attack as a “huge tragedy” and cancelled all mass gatherings scheduled for the weekend.

Russian authorities said security had been tightened at Moscow’s airports and railway stations.

Vehicles of Russian emergency services are parked near the burning Crocus City Hall concert venue following a reported shooting incident, outside Moscow, Russia, March 22, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
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Emergency service vehicles at the scene. Pic: Reuters

A massive blaze is seen at the Crocus City Hall. Pic: AP
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Thick black smoke rises into the sky from the Crocus City Hall concert venue. Pic: AP

President Vladimir Putin was receiving regular updates about the shooting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Two weeks ago the US embassy in Russia warned “extremists have imminent plans to attack large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts”.

It issued the warning several hours after the FSB said it had foiled an attack on a synagogue in Moscow by an Islamic State cell.

Russian authorities stand guard. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Russian authorities stand guard. Pic: Reuters

Men cover themselves with blankets near the burning Crocus City Hall. Pic: Reuters
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Men cover themselves with blankets near the burning venue. Pic: Reuters

Russian special operations forces near the Crocus City Hall concert venue. Pic: Reuters
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Russian special operations forces near Crocus City Hall. Pic: Reuters

White House national security adviser John Kirby said he could not yet speak about all the details but that “the images are just horrible. And just hard to watch”.

Mr Kirby said there was “no indication at this time that Ukraine, Ukrainians were involved”.

But Russia said if the US knew for sure Ukraine was not involved then it should share any information it had.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “On what basis do officials in Washington draw any conclusions in the midst of a tragedy about someone’s innocence?”

She said if Washington had information it should be shared and if it had no information it should not be talking in such a way.

Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Kyiv had nothing to do with the attack.

“Let’s be straight about this: Ukraine had absolutely nothing to do with these events,” Mr Podolyak said.

“We have a full-scale, all-out war with the Russian regular army and with the Russian Federation as a country. And
regardless of everything, everything will be decided on the battlefield.”

It comes days after Mr Putin secured his fifth term as Russia’s president in an electoral landslide.

Russia was shaken by a series of deadly terror attacks in the early 2000s as it fought separatists in the Russian province of Chechnya.

In October 2002 Chechen militants took around 800 people hostage at a theatre in Moscow which was stormed by Russian special forces two days later, leaving 129 hostages and 41 Chechen fighters dead, most from the effects of the gas Russian forces used to subdue the attackers.

In September 2004 around 30 Chechen militants seized hundreds of hostages at a school in southern Russia. The siege ended in a bloodbath two days later with more than 330 people, about half of them children, killed.

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

Representatives of dozens of climate vulnerable islands and African nations have stormed out of high-stakes negotiations over a climate funding goal.

Patience is wearing thin and negotiations have boiled over at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, which were due to finish yesterday but are now well into overtime.

After two weeks of talks, the more than 190 countries gathered in the capital Baku are still trying to agree a new financial settlement to channel money to poorer countries to both curb and adapt to climate change.

Talks have now run well into overtime at COP29, but a deal now feels much more precarious.

The least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa say their calls for a portion of the fund to be allocated to them have been ignored.

Samoa’s minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster is one of the representatives who walked out.

“We are here to negotiate but we have walked out… at the moment we don’t feel we are being heard in there,” he said on behalf of more than 40 small island and developing states, whose shorelines are being lost to rising sea levels.

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Shortly after he made a veiled threat of leaving COP29 altogether, saying: “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE.

“If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29.”

Evans Njewa, who chairs a group of more than 40 least developed countries, said the current deal is “unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do.”

The last official draft on Friday pledged $250bn a year annually by 2035.

This is more than double the previous goal of $100bn set 15 years ago, but nowhere near the annual $1.3trn that experts say is needed.

Sky News understands some developed countries like the UK were this morning willing to bump up the goal to $300bn.

Developing countries are angry not just about the finance negotiations, but also on how to make progress on a pledge from last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

A group of oil and producing countries, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, have tried to dilute that language, while the UK and island state are among those that have fought to keep it in.

Mr Schuster said all things being negotiated contain a “deplorable lack of substance”.

He added: “We need to see progress and follow up on the transition away from fossil fuels that we agreed last year. We have been asked to forget all about that at this COP, as though we are not in a critical decade and as though the 1.5C limit is not in peril.”

“We need to be shown the regard which our dire circumstances necessitate.”

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.

Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.

State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.

Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike
Image:
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike

Map of Lebanon and Israel

The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.

At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.

The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).

A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.

The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.

Pic: AP
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Pic: AP

Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.

Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.

Read more:
No 10 indicates Netanyahu would be arrested
‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike

US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.

Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.

It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ missile – as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia's 'unstoppable' missile - as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.

In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.

“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”

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Putin’s warning to the West

Russia war latest: Long-awaited US air defences arrive in Ukraine

He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”

Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.

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General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.

Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”

Read more from Sky News:
What are storm shadow missiles?
How bionic limps are helping Ukrainian troops

Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.

NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.

EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’

Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.

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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?

Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.

At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.

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