The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Moscow’s death toll rises again
The death toll from the Moscow concert hall attack has increased to 143, Russian officials said. Around 80 other people wounded in the siege by gunmen remain in hospital.
The Friday night massacre in Crocus City Hall, a sprawling shopping and entertainment venue on the north-western outskirts of Moscow, was the deadliest terror attack on Russian soil in nearly 20 years.
At least four men armed with automatic rifles shot at thousands of concert-goers and set the venue on fire.
An affiliate of the so-called Islamic State group (IS) claimed responsibility for the violence, while US intelligence said it had information confirming the group was responsible.
The updated fatalities from Russia’s Emergencies Ministry did not state the number of wounded, but Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said earlier that 80 were in hospitals and another 205 had sought medical treatment from the attack.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had arrested 11 people the day after the attack, including four suspected gunmen.
The four men, identified as Tajik nationals, appeared in a Moscow court on Sunday on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.
Russian officials, however, have insisted Ukraine and the West had a role, claims Kyiv vehemently denies. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of trying to drum up fervour as his forces fight in Ukraine.
FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov also alleged that Western spy agencies could have been involved.
“We believe radical Islamists prepared the action, while Western special services assisted it and Ukrainian special services had a direct part,” Mr Bortnikov said.
He repeated Mr Putin’s claim that the four gunmen were trying to escape to Ukraine when they were arrested, casting it as proof of Kyiv’s alleged involvement.
But that assertion was undercut slightly by Belarus’ authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko, who said the suspects were headed for Ukraine because they feared tight controls on the Belarus border.