Moscow terror attack: Crocus concert hall gunmen accused of locking emergency exits before terror attack that killed 137

A screen grab from a video shows smoke rising from fire as ambulances and personnel arrive at Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow, Russia after the attack. Photo / Getty

Emergency exits at the Moscow concert hall where gunmen killed 137 people could not be opened, some of the survivors have claimed.

Russian media have reported that more people may have died from smoke inhalation than gunshot wounds during the attack late last week.

Some 28 bodies are thought to have been found in a toilet area and another 14 in the stairwell of an emergency exit.

Trapped people hiding from the gunmen reportedly called emergency services pleading to be rescued as thick smoke filled the building.

A video shot by a survivor on his mobile phone showed people desperately rattling the handles of closed emergency exits as they tried to flee.

“This is a locked door,” the survivor is heard telling his companion.

In what appears to be a well-planned attack, the gunmen set fire to the building.

A view of damage at the Crocus City Hall concert venue as a search and rescue operation continues in the aftermath of the attack at Moscow, Russia. Photo / Getty

Baza, a Telegram channel linked to the Russian security services, said that bodies piled up next to emergency exits which may have been blocked shut.

In an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, an unnamed survivor said that he had been forced to dash through the main entrance of the concert hall, where the gunmen had started their attack, because the fire exits would not open.

“We tried the fire escape ladder, but it was closed. People climbed the ladder, descended the ladder, all closed,” he said.

Sensitive issue in Russia

The issue of blocked or locked fire exits is sensitive in Russia. In 2018, more than 60 people died in a shopping centre fire in Siberia because the alarms had been turned off and the escape exits had been locked.

Aras Agalarov, the owner of Crocus City Hall, has denied that any of the fire escape exits were locked and several survivors of the attack have said that they escaped through emergency exits.

The attack, responsibility for which has been claimed by an affiliate of Isis, is the deadliest on Russian soil in years.

Some families still don’t know whether relatives who went to the event are alive. Moscow’s department of health said today NZT that it has begun identifying the bodies of those killed via DNA testing, which will take at least two weeks.

The Moscow region’s ministry of emergency situations posted a video showing equipment dismantling the damaged music venue to give rescuers access.