An unknown assailant has attacked the headquarters of Russias domestic security agency in Moscow, killing one of its officers, in what the agency has billed a "terrorist" incident.
"The shooting began around 17:40," one witness told Reuters of the Thursday incident.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) itself said the shooter had been "neutralized" and that it was working to establish the gunmans identity, Russias Interfax news agency reported.
Russian media outlets said the agency treats the attack as an "act of terrorism."
The Izvestia newspaper, had reported earlier that three people had been killed in the incident. The FSB, however, negated the account.
Russias Health Ministry also said two officers had been "critically injured" during the shooting. It was not yet clear whether the victim was among the two.
The motive behind the attack is also yet to be discovered.
The Russian soil and interests have, in the past, come under numerous terrorist attacks by extremist groups.
On October 31, 2015, an Airbus flown by a Russian airline was destroyed by a bomb above Egypts North Sinai Province following departure from Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport in Egypt en route to Saint Petersburg. All the 224 passengers and crew were killed in the attack that was claimed by the Daesh Takfiri terror group.
In February, Russian news agency ITAR-TASS cited Kommersant daily as saying that the FSB had thwarted two plots hatched by the terror group to attack targets in Moscow.
The group had just suffered defeat in Iraq and Syria, which it invaded in 2014. The Syrian operations leading to the triumph benefited hugely from back-up Russian aerial operations.
In February 2018 too, the Russian service was said to have dismantled a Daesh terror cell reportedly planning to execute "high-profile" terrorist attacks in Moscow.
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