The Crocus City Hall complex, where a major terrorist attack took place on Friday night, sits 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 Crocus City site, in the same block as a convention hall and the Aquarium Hotel. South of it are the Vegas shopping mall and 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. It lies on the Moscow Ring Road, 30 minutes from the city center by Metro.
The venue hosted the 2013 Miss Universe pageant – owned at the time by American businessman and future president, Donald Trump – and has hosted numerous 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.
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.