Families’ anxious wait
FAMILY and friends of those still missing after an attack that killed more than 130 people at a Mosco w concert hall waited for news of their loved ones as Russia observed a day of national mourning yesterday.
Events at cultural institutions were cancelled, flags were lowered and TV entertainment and ads were suspended, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.
A steady stream of people took flowers to a makeshift memorial near the Crocus City Hall music venue.
The attack, which has been claimed by an affiliate of the socalled Islamic State, is the deadliest on Russian soil in years.
As rescuers continue to search the damaged building, some families still do not know if members who went to the event targeted by gunmen on Friday are alive.
Igor Pogadaev was desperately seeking any details of his wife’s whereabouts after she went to the concert and stopped responding to his messages.
He has not seen a message from Yana Pogadaeva since she sent her husband two photos from the venue.
After Mr Pogadaev saw the reports of gunmen opening fire on concertgoers, he rushed to the site but could not find her in the numerous ambulances or among the hundreds of people who had made their way out of the venue.
He said: “I went around, searched, I asked everyone, I showed photographs. No-one saw anything, no-one could say anything.”
As the death toll mounted on Saturday, Mr Pogadaev scoured hospitals in Moscow and the Moscow region, looking for information on newly-admitted patients.
His wife was not among the 154 reported injured, nor on the list of 50 of the 133 fatalities who authorities have already identified, he said.
The Moscow region’s emergency situations ministry revealed a video yesterday showing equipment dismantling the damaged music venue to give rescuers access.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be trying to tie Ukraine to the attack, something its government firmly denies.
Russian authorities arrested four suspected attackers on Saturday, Mr Putin said in an nighttime address to the nation, among 11 people suspected of involvement in the attack.
He claimed they were captured while fleeing to Ukraine.
On Saturday night another hail of missiles was aimed at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Mr Putin and others in Moscow as “scum” for linking the attack there to Kyiv.