Russia mourns victims of Moscow massacre
MOSCOW: Russia will observe a national day of mourning on Sunday after a massacre in a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 130 people, the deadliest attack in Europe to have been claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to punish those behind the “barbaric terrorist attack,” saying four gunmen trying to flee to Ukraine had been arrested.
A video apparently taken by gunmen, who carried out the deadly attack, has been posted on social media accounts typically used by the jihadist group, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
The video, which lasted a minute and a half, showed several individuals with blurred faces and garbled voices, armed with assault rifles and knives.
The Islamic State group wrote on Telegram Saturday that the attack was “carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives and firebombs,” as part of “the raging war” with “countries fighting Islam.”
Kyiv has strongly denied any connection, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accusing Putin of trying to shift the blame onto them.
Putin, in his first public remarks on the attack, made no reference to a statement by IS claiming responsibility.
It was the deadliest attack in Russia for almost two decades.
Russian officials expect the death toll to rise further, with more than 100 wounded in hospital.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said rescue workers were still pulling bodies from the burnt-out building on Saturday.
The emergency situations ministry has so far named 29 of the victims, the blaze having complicated the process of identification.
Terrorists, murderers, nonhumans ... have only one unenviable fate: retribution and oblivion,” Putin said in his televised address Saturday.
Calling the attack a “barbaric, terrorist act,” he said “all four direct perpetrators ... all those who shot and killed people, have been found and detained.”
Russian television showed security services interrogating four bloodied men, who spoke Russian with an accent, on a road in the western Bryansk region, which borders both Ukraine and Belarus.
“They tried to escape and were traveling towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” said Putin.
Russia has arrested 11 people in connection with the attack, the FSB security service said.
Earlier, the agency had said the attackers had “contacts” in
Ukraine, without elaborating.
Putin said: “All the perpetrators, organizers and those who ordered this crime will be justly and inevitably punished.”
The Investigative Committee said the death toll had so far reached 133 and the governor of the Moscow region said rescuers would continue to scour the site for “several days.”
Some witnesses filmed the gunmen from the upper floors as they walked through the stalls shooting people, sharing the footage on social media.
In Washington, a statement from the White House condemning the attack described the group as a “common terrorist enemy that must be defeated everywhere.”
The US embassy in Russia had warned on March 7 that “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts,” advising caution over the following 48 hours.
Washington said after the attack it had also shared details directly with Moscow.