The Russian authorities continue without mentioning the jihadist group’s claim for the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall and on Saturday they pointed out the existence of a plot related to Ukraine.
This Sunday, researchers updated the death toll, which went from 133 to 137 deaths, including three children.
The toll could increase as rescuers continue searching through the rubble of the building, set on fire by the attackers. In addition, there are 110 people hospitalized and 40 are in critical condition.
The Investigation Committee reported that they have identified 62 corpses and that two assault rifles and a large amount of ammunition were found at the scene.
“The whole country is in mourning,” stated the Russian public television channel Rossia 24 when starting its programs.
Rossia 24 broadcast images of an immense digital panel installed on a wall of the concert hall attacked where a candle is seen on a black background with the legend “Crocus City Hall. 03/22/2024. We are in mourning.”
Moscow’s museums and theaters announced they will remain closed over the weekend, and the capital’s restaurants promised to donate part of their Sunday profits to the families of the victims.
“People no longer smile, there is no joy anymore,” Valentina Karenina, a native of Siberia but passing through Moscow, told AFP, who went to light a candle in a church near the famous Red Square, now closed to the public.
This attack is bloodiest in Russia for two decades and the deadliest committed in Europe by IS.}
What was the attack in Moscow like?
The jihadist group, which Russia fights in Syria and also has a presence in the Russian Caucasus, has already committed attacks in the country since the late 2010s.
The HoArmed men broke into Crocus City Hall on Friday nightin the Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk, they shot at the audience and set part of the hall on fire.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to punish those responsible for the “savage terrorist act” and said that four men who were trying to flee to Ukraine were detained.
Those four people, all “foreign citizens” were detained in the Bryansk region, on the border with Ukraine and Belarus, according to authorities.
The FSB (Russian security service) stated that the suspects had “contacts” in Ukraine, faced with a Russian military intervention since 2022, and planned to flee to this country after the attack, but did not offer evidence of this alleged link or give details.
kyiv denied any link and the president Volodymyr Zelensky accused Putin of trying to “blame” Ukraine for this attack.
The spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, reiterated this Sunday that the jihadist group is solely responsible and that Ukraine is not involved.
The US authorities indicated that they had warned Russia, in early March, about a possible “terrorist” attack in a place in Moscow with “large concentrations” of people.
Source: Ambito
