‘At First It Sounded Like Some Kind of Fireworks’: Eyewitnesses Describe Deadly Shooting in Moscow

One of the eyewitnesses praised the efforts of law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting, noting how traffic cops helped to quickly usher bystanders away from danger.

As authorities move to deal with the aftermath of a deadly shooting in the centre of Moscow, near the headquarters of Russia’s Federal Security Service, several people who were in the area when the attack took place stepped forward to reveal new details related to the incident.

One of them, Vladimir Adyasov, told Sputnik that he left a store at about 18:03 (local time) when he heard some kind of strange “dull” sounds.

Adyasov praised the efforts of traffic cops who were stationed nearby, and who he said “quickly figured out what’s going on” and proceeded to usher bystanders away from the site of the incident.

Vladimir pointed out, however, that he did not linger at the scene, and that he only heard gunshots but didn’t actually see any shooting.

Another eyewitness, who identified himself as Yaroslav, said that he was watching the scene from a balcony of a bar at the Nautilus shopping centre which overlooks the Lubyanka Square.

Yaroslav noted that he saw “two special forces vehicles or something like that” arriving at about 19:00, and that he spotted 10 special forces operatives running towards the scene.

Another eyewitness, a resident of Moscow named Oleg, said he came to Lubyanka Square at about 18:30, and didn’t seem to think much of the strange sounds he heard, but then noticed “lots of people filming something” and the police officers who were “all around there”.

One FSB officer was killed and two were injured during a shootout near the Federal Security Service (FSB) headquarters in central Moscow on 19 December.

Sourse: sputniknews.com