Once they heard the shots ring out on Friday night at Crocus City Hall, Efim Fidrya and his wife ran down to the building’s basement and hid with three others in a bathroom.
They listened as shots rang out and thousands of people who had come to a sold-out rock concert on Moscow’s outskirts began screaming and trying to flee.
Horrified and scared, Mr. Fidrya did the only thing he could think to do: He held on tight to the bathroom door, which didn’t lock, trying to protect the group in case the assailants came to find them.
“While we could hear shooting and screaming, I stood the whole time holding the bathroom door shut,” Mr. Fidrya, an academic, said in a phone interview from Moscow.
“The others were standing in the corner so that if someone started shooting through the door, they wouldn’t be in the line of fire.”
Persons:
Efim Fidrya, Fidrya, ” Mr, “, ”
Organizations:
Crocus City
Locations:
Crocus, Moscow’s, Moscow