The left side of her face was swollen, her left arm wrapped in gauze. In a preternaturally calm voice, she spoke on camera of how the gunmen in the Crocus City Hall music venue spotted her and a small group of people as they fled the carnage of the worst terror attack on Russian soil in decades.
"They saw us," she told RT, a Russian state-funded news agency. "One of them ran back and started shooting at people. I fell to the floor and pretended to be dead. I was bleeding."
The gunmen opened fire into some of the bodies as they lay on the ground, she said. "The girl lying next to me was killed." The gunmen then set fire to the hall, apparently hoping to kill all those left inside. "Then the flames flared up... I was lying under the door, breathing air. After some time, I crawled out... to the exit."
That was just one of the horrific stories to emerge in the deadliest terror attack in Russia since the 2004 Beslan school siege. In videos and eyewitness accounts, a picture of terror and confusion emerged as the men burst into the concert hall firing automatic weapons, shooting at point-blank range into prone bodies, then stalked through venue on Moscow's outskirts for nearly an hour as panicked concertgoers scrambled through the bowels of the building to find a way out.
On Monday, the Russian president Vladimir Putin conceded that the attack was conducted by "radical Islamists" but reasserted his earlier claims that Ukraine could have been involved in the shooting that left at least 139 people dead.
"We are interested in who ordered it," Putin said during a meeting with government officials, claiming that the shooting fitted into a wider campaign of intimidation by Ukraine.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Starlink's conquest of the Amazon leaves Brazil in a dilemma
The helicopter swooped into one of the most inaccessible corners of the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian special forces commandos leaped from it into the caiman-inhabited waters below.
Dalai Lama's mountain town feels the strain of tourist boom
SUVs and saloon cars pass slowly along McLeod Ganj's narrow one-way Jogiwara Road, blaring horns at pedestrians and scooter riders and playing loud music.
'I am all the world' The brutal rule of a West Bank settler
Palestinians tell ofblacklisted Yakov's reign across the Jabal Salman valley and heisjust one of many violent bosses
Stormy waters New flashpoint emerges in South China Sea dispute
Hopes that tensions in the South China Sea might ease have been short lived.
'Justice delayed' Why trust in public inquiries to bring closure is fading
After the final report of the Grenfell fire inquiry was published, Hisam Choucair, who lost six family members in the blaze, said: \"We did not ask for this inquiry... It's delayed the justice my family deserves.\"
Celeriac soup with almond pangrattato
I'm not ashamed to say that as soon as September hits, my stick blender comes out. Just as I embrace salads when the clocks go forward in the UK, I wholeheartedly throw myself into soup season once the summer holidays end. Autumn is approaching in the northern hemisphere and I'm ready with my ladle. Celeriac is one of my favourite soup heroes, because it gives the creamiest, silkiest finish with little effort. You don't have to make the almond pangrattato, but it is a wonderful addition.
Are smoke signals telling me to make an oil change in the kitchen?
Should you that is, not can you) cook with extra-virgin olive oil? Antonio, Atlanta, Georgia, US
Going underground
A darkly humorous encounter between an American spy-cop and the members ofan eco-commune she is hired to infiltrate
All work and no play
Hard Graft, a powerfulnew London exhibition, focuses onworkers’ exploitation, from the ruined hands ofa washerwoman to mothers forced to sell their bodies
What the princess and the shaman tell us about hereditary privilege
It should have been an Instagram-perfect wedding image, but it turned out to be something more embarrassing.