Pallade Veneta - A year on, survivors still haunted by Russia's Crocus attack

The images of the March 22 attack on the concert hall near Moscow circulated around the world, showing four men calmly opening fire on the crowd and finishing off the wounded.

Yavkin, 23, had a work meeting with fellow musicians at Crocus hall, just before a concert of the Russian rock group Piknik.

All of a sudden, "a noise like firecrackers" rang out from the stalls, he told AFP.

"We saw people rushing in panic towards the stage and hiding backstage," he said.

"Some fell between the rows. I was almost paralysed by it," he said.

The attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, lasted about 20 minutes and the assailants set the hall on fire before fleeing the scene.

With his boss, Yavkin took out about twenty other VIP guests who were trapped in their booths, while smoke was already billowing.

Lost and disoriented, they did not know where to go.

That was when something happened which he calls a "miracle" -- a young attendant appeared and helped them.

"She showed us how to get out by going through the technical rooms before disappearing into the smoke," he said, adding: "She saved us."

His boss, Alexei Kozin, a 47-year-old music producer, said he "tries not to think about it to avoid the flashbacks" that haunt him.

"I still haven't told my mum I was there," he added, his voice hushed.

Kozin still goes to concerts for work but, once there, he said: "I keep an eye on the security services and check where the emergency exits are."

- 'I wasn't afraid' -

Although IS claimed responsibility for the attack, Russian authorities continued to pin the blame on Ukraine, where Moscow launched an offensive three years ago.

Kyiv has denied any involvement.

Last May, Russia for the first time said IS had coordinated the attack but did not retract the accusations against Kyiv for being behind it.

More than 20 people have been detained since then, including the four suspected gunmen, all from Tajikistan and arrested near the border with Ukraine.

The attack also had its heroes like Islam Khalilov, 16, and Artem Donskov, 15, two schoolmates who were working that evening in the cloakroom of the Crocus City Hall.

They managed to save more than a hundred people by helping them flee the burning building.

"I saw a huge crowd coming down the stairs in front of my cloakroom," Donskov told AFP. "People were terrified, but at the time I didn't understand anything and I wasn't afraid."

It was only when the first shots were fired that he realised it was an attack.

The high school student managed to turn the crowd of panicking adults into a single line and led them along technical corridors that he knew by heart to an emergency exit.

For his mother Alexandra, this drama has "transformed" the teenager.

"He is more self-confident, braver... I feel safer with him by my side," she said.

The testimonies of numerous survivors indicate that the two teenagers and the attendants were the only people to provide assistance during the attack, even if the police claim to have arrived "within five minutes" of being alerted.

According to Alexei Filatov, an expert in anti-terrorist operations, "the main reason for the high death toll is that the fire brigade was delayed by the traffic jams on that Friday evening".

Donskov's friend Khalilov said he acted with a "cool head", even after seeing a spectator hit by gunfire and fall to the ground.

However, he insists that he "does not feel like a hero".

"I'm just more confident," he said.

M.Jacobucci--PV