(Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat)
Yesterday, most of the world reveled in “A Moon Shaped Pool,” yet another wonderful album from the British alternative rock band Radiohead that was live streamed at an synchronized event held at record stores across the globe. However, at one record store in Istanbul, Turkey, that event suddenly became a terrifying and violent attack on the attendees. The attack occurred around 11:00 PM local time at a record store called Velvet Indieground, when an irate group of men entered the store and began vandalizing and assaulting those in attendance.
A video of the attack was uploaded to Periscope and later ripped:
According to Redditer who claims to have been the man behind the ripped Periscope video depicting the violence, the attack occurred in part because the Muslim faith is in the middle of Ramadan, one of their most sacred holidays. The men were gravely offended that those in the record store were “…having fun around the store and it’s forbidden to drink alcohol and stuff in Ramadan time…”
Initially there were wildly varying accounts of how serious the attack was, with Pitchfork claiming reports that no one was seriously injured, while Spin reports a Facebook user left post on the store’s page for the streaming event stating that the shop owner is missing and presumed dead. However, the Reddit user who claims to be the owner of the Periscope account that caught the attack on video has left an update that indicates no one involved in the attack is seriously injured.
Meanwhile, Radiohead responded to the attack with a short message:
Our hearts go out to those attacked tonight at Velvet IndieGround in Istanbul. We hope that someday we will be able to look back on such acts of violent intolerance as things of the ancient past. For now, we can only offer our fans in Istanbul our love and support.
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