Video shows Mariupol theater packed with women and children before it was destroyed

A video shared online apparently shows the Mariupol Drama Theater filled with displaced people hunkering for safety sometime before it was bombed earlier in the day.

The video shows most of the people in the theater were women and children. It is not known when it was filmed.

Drama Theater from the inside before the #Russian bombing

Just look at how many children are there… pic.twitter.com/Sgg4q8gPmP

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 16, 2022

Officials have yet to announce any casualty numbers. The city council of Mariupol says in a message that the theater was destroyed, along with the entrance to a bomb shelter in the building.

City official Petro Andruishchenko is quoted by CNN saying that the theater was the city’s largest shelter, but he holds out little hope for victims being rescued due to Russia’s continuing onslaught.

“According to preliminary data, more than a thousand people were hiding there,” he is quoted saying. “The probability of getting there to dismantle the rubble is low due to constant shelling and bombing of the city.”