Russian security officer dies in Moscow shooting
19 December 2019, 19:38
A Russian security officer has been shot and killed outside the Moscow headquarters of the country's top security agency.
The unidentified gunman opened fire outside the Federal Security Service, also known as the FSB, killing one officer and injuring five others.
FSB officials said the assailant was acting alone and did not enter the building on Lubyanka Square, however they would not give further details or comment on the attacker's motives.
They confirmed the suspect had been "neutralised," a term which usually means killed when used by Russian authorities.
Two of the five people wounded were also security officers, the Healthy Ministry confirmed.
The FSB is the successor agency to the notorious Soviet-era KGB.
Video of apparent shooting in central Moscow near FSB headquarters just now. Shooter has apparently barricaded himself in a nearby building pic.twitter.com/KipLm1uXiH
— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) December 19, 2019
In a video shared on social media, loud shots and bangs can be heard with people seen fleeing the area in panic.
Robert Anchipolovsky, an Israeli musician, was on the way to his concert in Moscow when he started filming the shooting from his car.
"I thought it was fireworks and then I saw how police started to fall on the tarmac and crouch down," Mr Anchipolovsky said.
Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the president had been informed of the shooting that occurred shortly after the Russian leader's annual news conference.
Mr Putin, at roughly the same time, was making a speech at a Kremlin concert for the FSB and other Russian security personnel.
In it, he marked the date the Soviet secret police was founded and praised its officers for their efforts in combating terrorism and organised crime.
