Moscow shootout: 1 FSB agent killed, attacker neutralized on the scene

After a gunman opened fire near the Federal Security Service on December 19, in downtown Moscow, an FSB officer was killed and five others were wounded. The FSB is Russia's successor to the KGB. The institution told on December 19 that the lone attacker was "neutralized" after the attack outside its headquarters on Lubyanka Square close to a busy shopping area in the heart of the Russian capital. People were spotted running in panic while armed officers made their way towards the scene after the late evening incident, taking cover behind parked cars, as seen in footages captured by the public. Putin had been informed about the incident, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed the media.

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The FSB in a statement to the media told that an unknown individual opened fire near the building and there were casualties. The identity of the criminal is being established and the criminal has been neutralized, it added. In it's follow up statement, the organization added that they have lost an officer and denied some reports of multiple gunmen, insisting there was only one attacker.

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Shootout on eve of the Day of Security Service 

Yet few media reports claim that their correspondents have heard more gunfire in the area two hours later, as police cordons remained around the area. A witness in the vicinity told a news agency that he saw one body and had heard rounds of automatic weapons fire. A separate witness claimed while speaking to the agency that he heard solitary automatic gunfire and questioned why anybody would open fire near the heavily guarded FSB headquarters. He added that the open fire led to inevitable destruction to the organisation as it was located at the heart of Moscow. It seemed desperate and deliberate, he said. The incident seemed more deliberate as it came on the eve of the Day of Security Service in Russia which is celebrated on December 20, said experts. 

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Videos of the shootout

Several videos shot from different vantage points showed armed men running out of an FSB reception office located close to FSB headquarters. Footage by an app showed a man running and being apparently shot in the back after which he laid in the middle of the parking lot. Likewise, another video showed gunfire at the windows of the FSB headquarters. A probe has been launched by Russia's Investigative Committee into the shooting and attempt on the life of a law enforcement employee, without giving the number of casualties. 

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