The spokesman for Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov made a call to the teenager Islam Khalilov and his parents, to express his admiration for the young man’s actions during the Moscow terror attack on March 22. Khalilov, who was one of two teenagers working in the coat-check room at the Crocus Concert Hall, helped save people from the terrorists.
“I spoke on the phone with Islam, who saved hundreds of lives during the tragic event in Moscow. His father, Bakhtiyar, is from Suzak district [in Jalal-Abad region] and his mother, Ai-Peri, is from Ozgon. Glory to our hero,” President Japarov’s spokesman, Dayiryek Orunbekov wrote on his Facebook page, posting a video of the conversation.
Islam Khalilov said of the attack: “At first it was a normal working day, then there were strange sounds. We thought maybe the escalator broke down or maybe it came from a drunken [crowd]. Then people started running out, screaming. I realized at that moment that I had to act. I immediately did [everything I could] because I realized that if I stood there in shock, I would lose my life [alongside] the lives of hundreds of people.”
According to Khalilov, when he saw a large group of people were moving in panic towards a dead end, he led the concertgoers behind him. The young man opened an emergency door and was able to lead the crowd into the hall’s service area, through which people were able to get outside and escape the terrorists. Together with another teenager, Artem Donskov, who also worked part-time in the concert hall’s coat-check room, they helped people evacuate the hall, and more than once returned to the site of the attack to save more people.
According to Khalilov, he along with other administrative staff at Crocus Concert Hall were given instructions on what to do in the event of a terrorist attack – and during the attack they followed these instructions to the letter.
According to Russian security forces, as of March 24, 137 people had been killed and 182 injured as a result of the attack on the concert hall. More than 6,000 people were in the building at the time of the attack. Alexander Bastrykin, Head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, has instructed his agency to consider awarding the schoolboys departmental honors for their bravery.
