Published: March 22, 2024 8:04 pm
Author: RT
Crocus City Hall is a major concert venue right outside the Russian capital
Crocus City Hall, where a major terrorist attack took place on Friday night, is a complex just outside of Moscow’s city limits, in the urban settlement of Krasnogorsk. It opened in October 2009, and was named after Muslim Magomayev (1942-2008), a legendary Soviet singer born in present-day Azerbaijan.
The concert venue is located on the northern end of the complex called Crocus City, in the same block as a convention hall and the Aquarium Hotel. South of it are a shopping mall dubbed “Vegas” and the Crocus City Expo center. The complex also includes a children’s amusement center and a wedding venue.
Crocus City Hall boasts an auditorium with over 13,000 seats, a concert hall with 7,500 seats, and a theater with almost 5,500 seats.
Visitors to Crocus City can take the Moscow Ring Road, located just to the east of the venue, or take the Moscow Metro’s Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line to Myakinino Station, which also opened in 2009.
The venue hosted the 2013 Miss Universe pageant – owned at the time by American businessman and future president Donald Trump – and concerts by prominent Western performers such as A-ha, Eric Clapton, and Joe Cocker.
The entire complex was built by and named after the Crocus Group, owned by the Azerbaijani-born businessman Aras Agalarov.
READ MORE: 40 killed and over 100 wounded in Moscow shooting – FSB
At least 40 people have been killed and more than 100 injured as a result of what Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) described as a terrorist attack. After opening fire outside the concert venue on Friday evening, the attackers reportedly detonated an explosive device that started a fire inside. The concert hall has been heavily damaged by the blaze and there are reports that parts of the building have collapsed.
