15-year-old Islam Khalilov, who works part-time as a cloakroom attendant, led more than a hundred people out of Crocus during the terrorist attack.

Morgenstern gave the teenager a million rubles, and Spartak gave him a match ticket

15-year-old schoolboy Islam Khalilov, who worked part-time as a cloakroom attendant at Crocus City Hall, saved more than a hundred people by showing them the exit to the street through the office premises. Telegram channel “112” was the first to report this.

Islam Khalilov himself told the Moscow Online publication that he worked part-time in the concert hall for about a year. On the day of the terrorist attack, he started his shift at 16:00. When the attack began and he heard loud noises, he at first thought that “maybe some noisy company had come.” Khalilov realized that something was wrong when people started running out from the direction of the stairs.

I understood that if I didn’t react, I would lose my life and the lives of many people. Honestly, it was very scary. When I was in a crowd of people, walking to the door to open it, I thought they might come out of the stairs or from the escalator, I don’t know, throw a grenade or open lethal fire. Thank God, nothing happened, I managed to open the door in time and let everyone out towards the Expo.

Khalilov explained that as an employee he was instructed how to act in an emergency situation, so he “knew where to take people to protect them.” The teenager himself went last, so that, in his words, “to know that he left no one behind.” “Mom was in shock, crying because I had to go through all this. That all this happened before my eyes. To be honest, I’m still in a state of shock. A man was shot before my eyes, I can’t stop thinking about it,” Khalilov said.

In an interview with Ruptly, Khalilov said that he does not feel like a hero: “It was part of my job. It’s better to sacrifice yourself than to let a hundred people die.”

According to the telegram channel “Caution, Moscow”, Islam Khalilov was helped out by three more teenagers who also worked in the wardrobe - 14-year-old Artem Donskov, Nikita Ivanov and another Artem.

As Donskov said, a crowd of people ran to the service building, where there was a dead end - but the teenagers began to direct everyone to the exits: there were two of them - a service one and an emergency one, which had previously been opened by unknown people.

All teenagers who participated in the evacuation eventually left the building safely.

Islam Khalilov is a fan of Spartak Moscow. When his action became known, the club invited the teenager to a meeting with the players and gave him a season ticket for home matches.

Rapper Alisher Morgenstern said he sent the teenager a million rubles. “I am very grateful to Morgenstern, I am sincerely very happy, with his help my life will somehow become easier,” said Islam Khalilov himself. According to Rise, his family uses this money to pay off loans.

Khalilov will also be awarded the Russian Muslim Medal “For Merit,” said the head of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia, Ravil Gainutdin. The award will be presented to the teenager at the Cathedral Mosque in Moscow during the next Friday prayer.