AT LEAST 15 people are feared dead after masked gunmen opened fire at a concert hall in Moscow.

Chilling footage on social media shows at least three people in camouflaged clothing bursting into Crocus City Hall before shooting at the crowd.

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The assailants also used explosives, causing a massive blaze at the concert venue, on the western edge of Moscow.

Video shared online showed huge plumes of black smoke rising over the building and up to 100 people may be trapped inside.

News outlet 112 with law enforcement contacts reported the death toll as high as 40 with 100 wounded, but numbers may change in the coming hours.

Riot police units were also sent to the area as people were being evacuated.

The Russian special services arrived at the scene but firefighters delayed tackling the blaze until they came.

Extended rounds of gunfire could be heard on multiple videos posted by Russian media and Telegram channels.

One showed two men with rifles moving through the mall.

Another one showed a man inside the auditorium, saying the assailants set it on fire, with incessant gunshots ringing out in the background.

A witness told RIA Novosti: “People in the hall lay down on the floor to escape the shooting, lay there for 15-20 minutes, after which they began to crawl out .

“Many managed to get out.”

A witness said: “Look how it burns. There are people inside.”

Mash media outlet reported: “Eyewitnesses from the scene of the tragedy report that some people were evacuated directly from the roof of the burning Crocus City Hall building.

“The shooting began simultaneously both in the auditorium and in the foyer, where there were crowds of people at that moment.

“The terrorists set fire to the chairs in the hall, from where the fire spread throughout almost the entire building.

“More than 50 ambulance crews responded to the scene. Doctors provide assistance to everyone in need.”

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered to provide all necessary assistance to all victims, calling the incident a “terrible tragedy”.

Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, said he was heading to the area and set up a task force to deal with the damage.

He didn’t immediately offer any further details.

Opened in October 2009, Crocus City Hall is located in the city’s Krasnogorsk Urban Settlement in the Krasnogorsky District.

The US and UK embassies warned two weeks ago about such an attack at a crowded venue by “extremists”.

They had suggested it would be earlier but warned foreign nationals to stay away from busy venues.

The motive for tonight’s shootings is not clear.

Crocus City is about 14 miles northwest of the Kremlin, and people were there for a concert by group Picnic, a Soviet era rock band.

One woman said: “We’re in Crocus City. We can’t leave.

“There’s a fire all around.”

An eyewitness said: “Nothing was announced at first. We were already lying on the floor between the chairs.

“They said nothing, absolutely nothing. We just lay there and didn’t know what to do.

“We just took our seats [when the shooting started].

“It was literally 8 pm,8:05, or 8:10.

“Shooting started from further away, from above.

“We sat on the very top row. At first everything was ok, it was kind of unclear what it was.

“Then we realised that something was wrong when we noticed that the ticket takers with these walkie-talkies began to run from top to bottom.

“The shooting started all over again, we heard it from above, we were sitting, then we heard it, we started moving all the way down, we realised that they were also shooting below.

“ We lay down at the bottom, in the middle, or rather somewhere on the floor, then we realised that all the people were going upstairs, and we started moving up.

“We eventually got out somewhere at the top.

“We began to go down the escalators. In short, we hid.

“They were shooting from all sides, just from all of them.

“We lay there, then noticed that people were somehow running down the escalator. We ran after them. There was one girl lying there.”

The US embassy had warned on 8 March: “The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings.”

They had suggested such an atrocity might happen in the next 48 hours, yet nothing did – until now.

People were told to avoid crowds, monitor the local media for updates, and be aware of surroundings.

The British embassy followed with a similar warning.

There was an interruption to social media after tonight’s attack.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanain said: “Today a terrible tragedy occurred in the Crocus City shopping centre.

“My condolences to the loved ones of the victims. He gave orders to provide all necessary assistance to everyone who suffered during the incident.”

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