Hundreds honor the fatal Crocus assault in Russia.

On Saturday, hundreds of Russians paid their respects to the 145 victims of the gun assault at Crocus City Hall in the Krasnogorsk neighborhood of Moscow by placing flowers there.

Pictures from the March 22, 2024, attack on the concert venue outside of Moscow went viral, showing four guys shooting at the over 5,000 spectators of the Russian rock band Piknik and killing the injured.

Maxim Burnayev, 34, a construction worker who was at the hall on the day of the attack with his wife, told AFP that he had seen “the horror that unfolded.”

“It was like in a movie, but it was real,” he remembered.

It lasted around 20 minutes and was Russia’s bloodiest strike in 20 years. The attackers burned the hall after the shootings and ran away.

The Islamic State (IS) group, which is prohibited as a terrorist organization in Russia, claimed responsibility for the attack.

“It is impossible to forget. My heart was pounding rapidly when we arrived at Crocus. A year has passed, but memories still exist,” Burnayev remarked.

He said that despite the fact that the image of the bloodied music hall still haunts him, he was attempting to “let it all go and continue to live, enjoy life” today after consulting a psychotherapist.

In front of Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow area, a memorial honoring the deaths was unveiled on Saturday close to the building that was badly damaged in the fire.

At the new memorial, which has two black marble pillars with cranes rising into the sky, people placed teddy bears, flowers, and pictures of their departed loved ones. One service was led by an Orthodox priest.

A 37-year-old volunteer named Maria Zhukovskaya said: “How could you not come here? How could you not pay tribute to those who had hopes, dreams, and desires before all fell apart in an instant?

Despite not directly knowing any of the fatalities, 28-year-old Anna Movchan stated, “We live in this city. We came together to support our nation, our people, and to grieve together since this is such a horrible event.”