Bomb threats in Moscow: Round 1 of the Aeroflot Open was aborted
2/19/2019 – After a bomb threat the first round of the Aeroflot Open had to be aborted 45 minutes after the start of the games. The Cosmos Hotel, the venue of the Aeroflot Open, was evacuated. Moscow had to cope with various bomb threats this afternoon, and shopping centers, cinemas, and theatres were evacuated. Thousands of people are affected.
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Bomb alert in Moscow
In Moscow this afternoon there were anonymous bomb threats to numerous shopping centres, cinemas, railway stations and hotels. According to the Russian news agency Interfax, there was a wave of anonymous phone calls with threats. As a precaution, over 10,000 people were evacuated from the buildings concerned.
Such a wave of threats had already occurred in Russia last September. At that time, 1.4 million people were affected. The Russian intelligence service FSB identified "Russians abroad" as the perpetrators. The Russian authorities are reacting very cautiously to all bomb threats since an attack in the St. Petersburg subway in March 2018 caused 18 deaths and countless injuries.
Через 45 минут после начала 1 тура "Аэрофлот Опен" в гостинице "Космос" была объявлена экстренная эвакуация. Первый тур отменен. Подробности последуют в репортаже на нашем сайте pic.twitter.com/uOSMBruA19
— RCF (@ruchess_ru) February 19, 2019
Also affected is the Cosmos Hotel, where the Aeroflot Open started today. Round 1 had to be stopped after 45 minutes because of the bomb threat.
Right now! #AeroflotOpen
— Reza Mahdipour (@Rez7a) February 19, 2019
(Photos by Mohammad Kheirkhah) pic.twitter.com/7lNxLKBSPr
According to unconfirmed information from Moscow tomorrow a double round (rounds 1 and 2) will be played.
