The Crocus City Hall mass casualty attack: timeline and suspects

Within an hour of the start of the fire, the entire roof of Crocus and some of the upper floors are in flames. Dozens of firefighting brigades are working to put out the blaze, with assistance from helicopters deployed by Russia’s Ministry of Emergencies.

As TASS reports at 20:33, “Moscow-based Special Rapid Response Units (SOBR) and OMON crews have been alerted and are currently en route to the site.” Also according to TASS, as of 21:01 both SOBR and OMON forces are still yet to arrive — this an hour and a half after the terror attack had begun. At 22:00, journalists report that the attackers may have escaped.

Fifty ambulances have been dispatched towards the building, which is still on fire. Inside Crocus, the beams are starting to collapse. The emergency services cannot begin putting out the fire from helicopters because a rescue operation is underway on the roof.

According to a preliminary report by Baza , the bodies of 10 people are found in one of the bathrooms. They hid there from the terrorists and called 112 (the emergency number in Russia) begging for help, as smoke was already starting to seep inside, isolating them in the stalls.

During the evacuation and firefighting effort, the Russian National Guard searches the parking lots outside Crocus but does not detect any explosives or bombs.

A few hours later, the first reports emerge about the FSB’s special operation to apprehend the attackers in the vicinity of Khatsun, a village in the Bryansk Region.

The fire is not fully extinguished until Saturday afternoon, after it has burned an area of 13,000 square meters.