Transcripts For RT News 20240713

Other thanks for joining us this is International Coming to you from central moscow we start this hour with our breaking news story which is that numerous shots have been fired in the immediate vicinity of the federal Security Service building one person has been. That this video reportedly shows the shooter the moments of the attack she just thought to be acting alone his identity is yet to be confirmed the area around the scene of the f. S. B. Headquarters has been cordoned off and the following coming up now is footage of the moment of the shoot. Weve spoken to eyewitnesses who described that moment of the attack. But is i was sitting with my friends at a bar when the shooting began and it was the sound of a kalashnikov Assault Rifle and i know what it sounds like my friends were like oh it must be firecrackers but i told them no way its not firecrackers and then we saw people running down the street it was scary 1st we saw people running and then a swat team armed with Assault Rifles came running in the opposite direction and then we heard a massive government fire we dont know what exactly happened their officers asked us to stay away from the windows and they let us leave the bar after a few hours. Ok well thats because our correspondent whos standing just across the road from the scene of the attack the f. S. B. Headquarters marie for National Reporting for his spring is up to date with the events from a few hours ago. It appears that maria is unable to hear me at the moment to try to get back to her as soon as technically possible fortunately dont you hawkins is right across the story and hes been here in the studio with me for the last few hours and youll be able to listen on the on the key details in terms of assailants victims where exactly we stand in terms of what we actually know well in these sorts of incidents of course and thats always a case of slowly building some sort of targaryen some sort of picture of exactly what happened but as we know as weve seen over the last few hours a lot of contradictory information coming in from media reports from eyewitness accounts understandable of course given that the panic that happened what we can say for sure is that there was one attacker involved unconfirmed reports officially that hes been neutralized but certainly doesnt seem like an act of rationing so any more we know that this attack or attempted to enter the headquarters of the f. S. B. Thats the russian for. Security service or its a building very much in central moscow its within a stones throw from the bolshoi theater red square in the Big Shopping Center at rush hour this would have been packed with people very busy people leaving work to go home and go about their evening activities thats happened at about 10 past 6 in the evening now Security Forces and police are very quick to respond that attacker was quickly reports say he was quickly shot dead but not before sadly he managed to kill and injure at least 5 people we cant say exactly what their condition is we know that one f. S. B. Officer was tragically killed another one was in a Critical Condition the other 3 people we dont have any information from the Health Ministry as of yet we know theyve been taken to local hospitals we know he was carrying an automatic Assault Rifle which for moscow for a city you which as we discussed earlier has suffered its fair share of terrorist attacks of bombings that set for is quite a rare sight and seeing these streets are deserted of after this certainly is is quite surreal that certainly wasnt the case that posix in the evening we do have some more witness video shot on smartphones which we can show you which which shows that the moment of panic when police began screaming screaming at people to run to hide to get out the way of this silence a lot of far we can bring it out again now. Than it was at this point people dont always fully understand what theyre hearing you hear those sounds how many people have actually heard a live firearm discharge some people. Sometimes they think its fireworks others though were made very aware of the situation when they buy Office Police officers who are nearby and theyre in panic and see. Absolutely and the 1st few openings counts but the read that we heard so many people was saying that they feel it was fireworks and as more videos have come in this is another video we can we can show you now and this allegedly shows the moment that the attacker was targeted by police and Security Forces obviously we have it in the video too to the most graphic cards and this is unconfirmed its quite grainy shaky footage unbelievable how close these people filming how have managed to get to the attacker really a risk to their life it does show the attacker wearing some sort of come off large some sort of dark clothing his his face his head is covered hes wearing some sort of backpack that may well have been the case which it was speculated earlier in the evening was left in the lobby of the building which Security Office as well. May have been some sort of bomb some sort of explosive device those reports of course im confirming we dont know whats happened since Security Forces are doing a sweep of the building are believed to be in short there is no further danger to the public from any device like we said that video unconfirmed but it does show what appears to be a shootout with police and Security Forces as i say the an edited version of the video will try and show you a longer version obviously what weve blurred out the most graphic parts it does show Security Forces on the left hand side shooting across the screen towards the assailants thats the latest update new york obviously we are still waiting for official confirmation this is being treated as a terrorist incident and i we can speculate of course we want at this stage given the target of the attack the f. S. B. Given the timing of the attack the speech by president putin today both his conversation with journalists and in the kremlin as well given tomorrow of course russia celebrating Security Services day until that is officially confirmed thats all we can bring our viewers and this is a fragment of the speech by police and given a little earlier today. Ok lets bring it out of the limited but we can or we can bring you this and as we have spoken to some eyewitnesses at this point and they just goes to show that people will view what they hear what they see very differently than the terrorists of course they are reliant upon spreading fear. And panic and by the large studies what they managed to achieve even the sounds of gunshots even people see anything the. Panic running loose in the streets when people hear gunshots and theyre telling people to run for their lights and absolutely and weve covered tragically so many stories in the suit on the ground the bicycle and attack the meat attack London Bridge 2 attacks etc this is an event which is becoming more frequent lone wolf attacks are hard to prevent whatever tactics they use whether thats suicide bombers left. With knives running attacks shooting they always cause designed to cause mass panic fear and of course ultimately a debate which takes place after such attacks about the balance of the say between protecting the rights liberties and privacy of people and the public safe that is a debate that is going to be heard again after after this attack after each attack and thats to be taken very seriously and as i mentioned we have managed to speak to people who are in the close proximity to the other side lets just say here what they had to say about what they heard and what they saw. At a minute or 2 by 6 i was leaving work you know i dont like staying at work late so i left work met up with my girlfriend and when we heard some dull sounds in the distance i thought at 1st it was fireworks or some firecrackers you know as the sound continued we realized something was wrong and Traffic Police who were on because next could bridge as usual began evacuating people that should have been and we got on to what was going on people started running we heard the gunfire so i decided to better to leave that area in case it was a terrorist act. The ok lets trust me too of course former if a notion of caesar just across the road from the f. S. B. Headquarters was the incident occurred just to take us through what what more youve heard. Behind neil i just heard my colleague daniel talking in the studio a Group Picture here on the ground downtown mosco with empty streets and police cars law is flashing brighter than christmas decoration and i realize that i can see would probably you cannot see soon let me give you a Bigger Picture here on the grounds of the route 2 absolutely different scenes near one is indeed very sad behind me that massive yellow brick structure which hes the Main Building of russias federal Security Service known as after has to be we ceased to be by the way they had mortars all famous soviet k. G. B. As well and historic legendary and very symbolic building this is why they see whatever the attack was earlier on thursday evening meant to target the stain on my right the reason want to rush is all just and biggest keyed story is also a story with cheese right now also i am t. It was closed with the 1st gunshots for security purposes as well but on the other side behind our camera i can see right now with my own eyes is where i can describe as ordinary life with people taking pictures of moscows beauties and famous sighs just meeting friends shopping taking dinners coming back from Newark Griese metro entrance right here is now open and i came here by the way using the subway it wasnt closed there was no even police extra police forces. Downstairs so it is rather calm right now here but of course it differs from the g. s to be just several hours ago when the shooting here happened in just to give you an understanding of how central we are just asking. Teen minute walk down this street will take you directly to the red square and the gravel and so we are literally in the very heart of a mosque in this is where the shooting started earlier than thursday again it happened several hours ago but still details are not clear but what is confirmed at least one atthis be officer has been killed 2 others are still in Critical Condition and they are being treated at one of most good hospitals we heard earlier that russian authorities classified this attack as a terror attack but it was never very fied officially so we can all talk about this for sure but we hear from after israel also that there was only one person involved in this attack and he was killed in the operation so drowning many reports again some of them contradicting and i can see so many people here with their phones filming and police and on social media everybody feels journalists these days of course and i think that adds to that huge molecule of information that we receive all was happened what is right now happening so we should be very careful with that information so a get is downtown mosco thursday evening you can imagine it was very crowded there were many people here at the time when the 1st gunshots were heard and you heard many eyewitnesses and many of them described the 1st seconds as confusion because they simply couldnt understand what that sound was exactly the sound of gunshots because this is not the sound that normal ordinary people here actually in their everyday lives and many of them because its christmas time to kids simply for fireworks and many of them continued i mean talking to their friends taking pictures and even the last thing and even i mean. There are some leaders on social media some girls laughing at the moment and say no more but there are now funny sounds here are a but that was until Police Officers told and shouted to hide and this is when real panic started really dramatic moments they they witnessed lets take a listen. But you should know that when the shooting started i was in the office a building in the starbucks cafe and i was just sitting there working at my laptop that misfit was scrum Christmas Music going on in the background and i heard the sound of gunfire and it was the last thing i expected why the 10 minutes past 6 the gunfire the most terrible was not just a few shots of the cayman bursts we saw officers taking cover behind because it was so i spent an hour inside the tower famous for the lights in there one towers and then the rule to the through the back door trip from what. I used to be a war correspondent and i used to worry kane countries like syria leave and understand all these people most go downtown its not the place we use expect to hear a shooting and gunshots and worse they were scared so what is happening right now again is rather con there is no hand it would be alive but over there we can see at least 20 police cars industry serang that Main Building known as look down the headquarters of russias federal Security Service right now closed and the question many now i was and is why it is closed whats happening is they all pray ssion right now on go it is that any threat coming from that area unclear no on series and so again i call for everybody to be very careful with information and with their pictures and videos they paste in the comments they keep. On what happening and whats going on right now thanks to you thank you maria for national there in central moscow reporting lets go live to Chris Phillips now hes the former head of the u. K. s National Counterterrorism Security Office good evening to you chris and thats kind of it there in a nutshell where it seems increasingly so these days when you get a violent attack with fatalities involved this mass confusion for what can go on for for seemingly for hours even the authorities themselves can be quite slow or reluctant to confirm anything officially at the moment were hearing that the deficit we havent officially confirmed this is terrorism although the report saying that they have so the confusion as to say continues but what do you make of the initial inspection of the information which is that we have an assailant attempting to enter the f. S. B. Headquarters shot dead they killed one person the press its pretty likely wouldnt you say terrorism from your experience well i mean it is very early and of course. It may well be that they dont even know who this man is yet so you know you they need to look into that before they make any conclusion and of course he may be working with someone else they dont know that so so all those things need to be investigated but let me put it this way this is a slightly different terrorist attack and weve seen recently most terrorist attacks over the last 5 or 6 years have been aimed principally at the public the public have been the targets killing as many innocent people as possible this was very very different indeed not only was it a man with a machine gun populate the 7 i dont know but probably a mean directly the headquarters one of the probably if not the most guarded location in moscow. And what that means is that this was a it was maybe it wasnt a terrorist maybe this was someone with a grudge maybe this was someone that feels rather badly treated all that will have to come out in the polls but of course. What weve seen here is an individual being killed almost certainly someone standing on the gate and thats most dangerous place to be in here in these sort of locations but an attack on the most defended place in moscow is never going to turn out very well for the attack it. Yeah and then i was a point i was making earlier that this effectively was a Suicide Mission we dont know if this is politically motivated religious connotations what the motivation of the attacker was what is for certain though is that the seems to be an increasing number of the so as i referred to it a Suicide Mission where someone is looking to kill people and that would seem seemingly willing to sacrifice their life are we seeing more of this in modern life or were we just reporting it more is it actually an increasing phenomenon no theres no doubt that the drumbeat of terrorist type incidents are increasing as more and more people we dont arrest this whether its the far right islamic terrorism or whatever these sort of incidents are taking place much more often but of course the multiplied by the as was spoken about just the civilian journalist with the i phones and the bits which which is make george very quickly what i would say though you know this may well not end up being a terrorist attack this was. Just in different attack than weve seen recently this was a specific attack trying to get into the f. S. B. Headquarters and as a that was always going to fail. But to get a machine gun i imagine is not that difficult actually in russia so it could be just someone with a particular grudge rather than a terrorist group and one of the things that strikes me thank goodness that they sell it wasnt looking just to pile up a body count because that presumably havent much easier with the major childrens toy store just down the road in the lots of people on red square just a few minutes walk away. Often i think that the death toll could have been much higher in many of these terrorist incidents is that because theyre limited in terms of the weaponry they can get hold of many times or are they not necessarily looking for it to get the maximum number of fatalities loads. Generally generally you get the whole crowded places attack methodology is aimed at killing as many people as possible thats why this man with a machine gun would have been absolutely lethal in the areas surrounding this building let alone into red square and the shopping district its so huge so this is why its not a normal terrorist attack that weve seen recently this is why i think slightly differently that more will come out about this about this mans motives but of course a man with a questionable roaming around a Shopping Center is a lethal piece of equipment and many many many people would have been killed in that instance are you surprised wrong talking about one play toileting seemingly going by the equipment and even the attire of the man suggest some kind of expertise maybe training its hard to be certain but theres a suggestion this person was familiar with what they were using only one person dies of that an automatic weapon. Yeah which which makes you think. This may well end up not terrorism but maybe someone actually making a point that they want to attack the f. S. B. Maybe that theyve got a grudge against them this is all things that will come out but of course the investigators wont have to rely on that as a possibility theyll be looking into this person background and working out what is motives were whether or not hes linked to other people and it may well be due course to see laura arrests taking place and saves up only all the jigsaw pieces together what does it tell us about how hard it is in together or National Security headquarters someone coming in with it with a weapon theyve got the element of surprise but they seem to do all kinds of elements of defense in place. Yes of course and theres layers of defense which is you know you can always probably breach the abs a layer of the security of any building or or area but actually better to do what you want to do and get in so it is much more difficult and youll have bomb blast windows youll have to have security doors all of which are aimed to stop will delay the terrorist suspect from getting in and of course then youve got people inside almost certainly with firearms so so the response will be immediate and one man with even if its a machine gun a one man with a machine gun will soon be overwhelmed by the sheer weight of numbers of police and Security Services around. Is there an element and and i guess kind of media plays into this whether it be nice channels reporting it which they will be want to do when theres a shooting incident or social media which is a base that uncontrollable once it gets gets gets rolling is this to some extent feeling that the way that people think it in is that they sense that they might think ok i know this will get attention i want to tension im going to do something dramatic this is the way forward because ive seen it so many times of from of the people you know you put your finger right on the button there i think the big issue is now that weve got all sorts of people with various Mental Illnesses mental disease except people of got druggies people that perhaps would commit suicide maybe for you know in a more in a quite so why now going out and doing these ridiculous things in order to get in cells of infamy and and i think possibly part of the media and the way we go forward with this is the not give the people themselves only publicists city obviously youre going to report this youve got no choice were going to talk about whats happening can we stop and in the future but actually not given the oxygen of publicity to the people who are doing it so that they do almost remain nameless in history. This great speak to appreciate your analysis chris for his former head of the u. K. s National Counterterrorism Security Office. Hold insisted interesting speak to chris because. When you get an expert analysis make sure on the stand a lot of the things suggest you know its a good chance this wasnt a terrorist attack we dont officially know yet whether its being treated in that way which again part the problem is so much information out there officially. The f. S. B. Is not saying that investigating it is a terrorism yet but its going to take them a while to work out what they actually do know about this is silent and his motivation is piecing together a puzzle really is that i mean weve speculated that over the last few hours from media reports all factors involved here the target the fact its f. S. B. That its the federal russian Security Services the symbol of power of statehood of stability something which terrorists would want to strike at if this is a terrorist attack the timing of the attack given putins annual address with journalists given the upcoming day of Security Services tomorrow and russia you speak to the kremlin and of course the fact that you would not attack a hard target socalled hard target like this without the knowledge without coming to terms with the fact that you are probably not going to make it out alive on the other hand of course as groups Chris Phillips was said theres the factors of Mental Health of drug use indeed we saw one shooting a few weeks ago in russia in an army unit where an army conscript shot dead several of his colleagues with Assault Rifle that was put down to the phenomenon of hazing of bullying and Mental Health that at no point was considered terrorism so we really have to wait for them to get to the bottom of this with both sides has marks of all over attack targeting a symbol of statehood we really have to wait until they get to the bottom of this and certainly the u. S. Theaters at the scene piecing together forensic c. C. T. V. And of course speaking to witnesses well will tell us a bit more about what happened we managed to speak to someone this is at the see who described those early moments when this attack again. Weve heard 3 sound we need to realize. That the tide was going then we heard someone in the street shouting back to go back to the i dont know who was screaming because i didnt see anything it felt like the shooting lasted for a very long time it seemed to me that it was about 15 minutes but maybe it just sounds like that some random shots were heard for the whole hour until 7 pm. They were mentioned before the timing of course was of a crime of that time on the eve of national Security Services day he was giving a speech highlighting the importance of rooting out extremism fundamentalism before it turns into something more of course if this does turn out to be officially confirmed as terrorism that will make the speech even more poignant miss is a fragment from what he had to say just a few hours ago. He would use the extreme we need to be more active in countering extremism if necessary just as long compromising leaders of the president of education who violence that seems to drool people is eventually you. So sure radical a little bit of that is good but i mean that basic. 5 casualties so far confirmed by the ministry of health one still in a Critical Condition in a local hospital will bring you all the updates of course to our viewers as they come in officially as to what the motives behind all this could have been ok my thanks dan who is with me in the studio weve been speaking to several guests over the last couple of hours political analyst a consultant run the world for told us that European Countries and russia should leave behind the political bickering in joining forces in the fight against terrorism. The fact that they. Strike against. The borders is really alarming because it shows that they are so self confident that they get the russian government the russians. But its very hard and yes this is an armed signal and we have to admit. Our inner cities our goal are of 2 such incidents in the problem after the terrorist attacks that cities just as much as london paris brussels and moscow face together we are united and in the consequence we should also unite politically to bridge this divide which is politically made between lets say east and west russia and the European Union because we both face the same problems in the in time terrorism expert Peter Williams thinks that reports this could be a terrorist attack are highly likely. It looks like the alleged perpetrator in that case. A chose an opportunity when he was in the capital when he was in an iconic location i also understand today was a fairly lengthy and of the year Media Conference by the president now those 2 facts the location being the headquarters of the security search it was in russia and the fact that theres a lot of Media Coverage globally of the president s Media Conference that this individual or these people have taken the opportunity and sold their full it strikes me as that they are russian interior are quite right to deal with this as a terror attack terrorist groups i want to global forcing which is the reasons why they can they carry out these attacks in iconic locations because they are sending a message to their supporters globally so the way to go here is to enhance in sell it and that is what we call Counter Intelligence and that is the best way to downgrade any terrorist Group Social Media on those. All the types of florens is where the Security Services can focus their. Efforts in in trying to obviously pick up the chatter and prevent you know any sort of terrorist attack again i can only speak for the United Kingdom but i know weve been particularly successful in that regard assisted doing that bill walton makes it difficult is the fact what we call the low level attacks where people use the eccles all knives theyre the ones which are almost very impromptu and they are very difficult in order to stop when trucks see whats going on. To the sane or the attack this evening and remarkably it seems like things