A journalism student from Moscow State University described what happened when a shooting took place at the nearby headquarters of Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, on Wednesday.

"[The security guard of the educational institution] said there was a shooting and called everyone inside. And then he ran inside himself. Nothing was heard. Nobody understood what was going on. Everyone was just standing outside, chatting and smoking. It was only after about five minutes that they started driving us inside, telling us to come inside urgently, but nobody said that there was some kind of shooting," she said.

The footage shows ambulances and police vehicles near the Romanov Dvor business centre. She added that she had noticed a police vehicle outside the business centre the previous day.

According to the retailer’s press service, a group of men accompanying the co-founder of the marketplace, Vladislav Bakalchuk, opened fire.

"There were two simultaneous trespassing attempts at two company's addresses. It proves that no negotiations were planned. <...> Police officers and security personnel of the business centre were injured as a result of actions of people accompanying Vladislav Bakalchuk," the report claimed.

Meanwhile, Bakalchuk said that he and his team were attacked as they approached the office "to hold talks on suspending warehouses construction".

"The business centre security guards refused to let me and my colleagues through, using ridiculous excuses, as if we were some 'weird people in civilian clothes', despite the presence of police officers. No one could have imagined that the shooting would begin. My team was not armed, police officers protected us," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Wildberries CEO Tatyana Bakalchuk denied reports of any talks and described the incident as 'an unsuccessful attempt at a raider takeover'.

Media outlets reported that Russian Investigative Committee personnel were working at the site.