The girl lies in a hospital bed, staring straight toward the ceiling. The left side of her face is swollen, her left arm wrapped in gauze.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. The four men, who appear to be from Tajikistan in central Asia, have been arrested, Russian police say.“Then the flames flared up. They closed the front door, but they probably couldn’t close the lock,” said the woman, who did not give her name. “I was lying under the door, breathing air. After some time, I crawled out, three minutes passed, maybe four. I looked around, crawled to the exit.
The attack came minutes before the start of a sold-out concert by Piknik, a Russian rock band formed in Leningrad in the 1970s. Many concertgoers initially assumed the sound of gunshots was part of the show. Soon after, Arina saw a man in camouflage clothing enter the concert hall holding an automatic rifle.View image in fullscreenArina said she eventually managed to escape the concert hall and then ran down an escalator.
“Put your phone away and crawl!” one man can be heard screaming in footage posted online, as the gunmen fire into the crowds below the balcony. Some on the lower levels had to crawl out past the dead and wounded.