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LAST UPDATE | 19 Dec 2019
AN OFFICER IN Russia’s FSB security service has been killed and five people have been wounded after a gunman opened fire near its central Moscow headquarters.
The FSB, a successor to the KGB, said the lone attacker was “neutralised” after the attack outside its notorious headquarters on Lubyanka Square close to a busy shopping area in the heart of the Russian capital.
Footage shot by passers-by showed people running in panic while armed officers made their way towards the scene after the late evening incident, taking cover behind parked cars.
“An unknown individual opened fire near building… there are casualties. The identity of the criminal is being established. The criminal has been neutralised,” the FSB said.
It added later that “one FSB officer has died”, and denied some reports of multiple gunmen, insisting there was only one attacker.
AFP correspondents in the area however heard more gunfire in the area two hours later, as police cordons remained around the area.
Witness Andrei Molchanov told AFP at the scene he saw one body and had heard rounds of automatic weapons fire.
‘Faced inevitable destruction’
Pavel, another witness who was in a cafe near the scene, said he heard solitary automatic gunfire and questioned why anybody would open fire near the heavily guarded FSB headquarters.
“They knew they faced inevitable destruction: it’s the centre of Moscow … a person must be desperate for this to happen.”
The ominous grey building, known simply as the Lubyanka after the square where it is located, was the headquarters of the KGB in Soviet times with a fearsome reputation as the location for interrogating prisoners.
Several videos shot from different vantage points showed armed men running out of an FSB reception office located close to the headquarters.
Footage posted on Telegram news channel Baza, shot in the square near the FSB headquarters, showed a man running and being apparently shot in the back after which he laid in the middle of the parking lot.
Another video showed gunfire at the windows of the FSB headquarters.
Russia’s Investigative Committee launched a probe into the shooting and “attempt on life of a law enforcement employee”, without giving the number of casualties.
The health ministry told Russian agencies that five people were being treated for injuries due to the shooting, without specifying the nature of the injuries or whether the casualties were civilians.
Putin informed
The incident came on the eve of the Day of Security Service in Russia which is celebrated on 20 December.
President Vladimir Putin also gave a speech today marking a concert for the Russian security workers’ day, saying that at least 54-terror related crimes had been thwarted in Russia in 2019, including 33 attacks.
The Russian leader had earlier been in central Moscow for his annual marathon news conference with journalists that lasted almost four and a half hours.
Putin had been informed about the incident, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Russia has in the last few years been hit by a spate of attacks blamed on Islamist militants, often hailing from the restive Northern Caucasus region.
A Russian court earlier this month sentenced 11 people to terms including life in prison after finding them guilty of a deadly bomb attack on the Saint Petersburg metro in 2017 that killed 15 people and wounded dozens more.
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Is the Climate Change Advisory Council independent? Who elected theses ‘experts’?
If we can’t tackle cronyism, favouritism and nepotism. It’s what fuelling distrust of our political system. Are those you gain from political strokes the best ‘experts’ to offer advice?
@leartius: Independent from what? Surely not rom ideology. Independent means not responsible to anyone. I do demand any authority to be answerable to democratic process.
@leartius: back to the drawing board I’d say…..
More taxes will fix it
People want to work from home. Let them. It cuts down so much on commuter hours.thats where they should start. Then fix rural public transport for people who can’t work from home.
How many more opinion pieces about climate change are you going to publish?? Mainstream media here in Ireland needs to cool the jets. Even the advertisements are at it now.
We know climate change is an issue, we get it, we are doing all we can but nothing can change until the big corporations, governments and powerful nations like USA and China do something.
All these opinion pieces are targeted for the same people over and over again, it will result in climate fatigue. The average Joe just won’t care anymore. Anytime I switch on Sky or RTE or open the journal we are bombarded with it.
It’s just turning into one big cliche.
How many times can someone talk about the issue without saying what’s already been said before?
@Darren Anthony Corr: to be honest the quality of journalism is quite poor. merely emotional sound bites without logic or even a vision of a plan that might actually work. quoting young people all the time who dont really understand the issues involved. msm is just full of populist nonsense these days.
We were lighting the fire pretty much every day from the end of September onwards last year. This year we’ve had to light a grand total of two fires so far, both at the end of October. I was walking around Tralee today in a t-shirt, in mid November. Just my own experience but I should have been frozen with the cold today and it was grand. Don’t really remember it being this mild so late in the year before but I don’t remember lots of things sometimes! Anyone remember anything like this recently?
Population reduction is the only way to counter the offensive ‘emmitions’ which are caused by being alive. Our politicians strive for population growth, economy growth, investment in infrastructure, building more crappy houses, larger markets, More demand for consumable stuff, all great for business, not great for environment. There should be incentives for people to elect for sterilisation, and measures put in place to shrink the population if they were serious about it. Instead it’s wind farms and electric cars.
@Eamonn O’Hanrahan: Nothing stopping your from getting sterilised of you wish.
good point. also Govt has no solutions just taxes. we have insufficient power generation f ev’s. we have insufficient surge capacity in our grid for ev’s. Ev’s wont work for tractors, hgv’s, trains or ships but hydrogen will / no plan. No plan for hydtogen fuel cell cars for those who cannot install a charging point or who criss cross the country needing fast fill up.
@Damian Moylan: “we have insufficient power generation f ev’s… but hydrogen will / no plan. No plan for hydtogen fuel cell cars”
I don’t understand how one pivots from insufficient power for EVs to – what about hydrogen, which requires about around about 3 times the electric.
It has the motorists. I mean it must be yeah? Let’s tax them even more, they are an easy target? 2m plus vehicles on the roads. Sure it makes sense? Let’s invent new levies and new taxes because that’ll solve the problem. It’s not agriculture or other sectors nope, couldn’t be.
develop hydrogen infrastructure.
https://youtu.be/4sn0ecqZgog
We’ll have to go back to turning off the immersion
Big break through in cop-on26 Ireland is been shut down The world is saved China and the US are giving us badges for our sacrifice
We does Ireland go from here?
Subsidise materials like insulation for retro fitting so people can DIY, cut down on beaurcracy.
Stop building on low levels near the sea and rivers.
Become more food secure, diversify farming, subsidise smaller farms and organic/chemical free
Planning exemptions for buildings made with natural materials/composting loos etc.
Make rainwater harvesting mandatory in all new builds
Fuel rationing for cars, even out the rural v urban obstacle.
Limit on outdoor lighting on private dwellings.
Limit on no. Properties unless landlord.
Tax on airline travel.
@Anarch Eco: do what Colm Molloy said
@Anarch Eco: taxing air travel isnt the answer to that industry and its emmitance. The rich will continue to travel as much as always and the poor still will want to get their one sunshine holiday a year, only it will cost them more and hurt their home finances. Ireland is an island with miserable summers and you can’t bank on a decent week in August. Taxing things like this only serve to widen the gap in the haves and haven’ts.
@Jeff Cole: oh theres wealth taxes in there too.
Plenty of years with good weather in may/June/july, august should be cancelled.
Studying up on the current planetary pole shift would be an excellent start
It’s to dam cowld anyway I wouldn’t mind a bit of global warming coming into a the freezing winter
have your say