Update, Saturday morning: Authorities now say 133 people were killed in the attack on the concert hall. Russia’s top government investigative agency said on Saturday that it had arrested 11 suspects, four of whom were directly involved in the attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “All four perpetrators of the terrorist attack, and all those who shot and killed people, have been found and arrested.” He added: “They tried to hide and move towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.”
Sunday, March 24, was declared a day of mourning.
Updated with details and White House statement: The Associated Press, CNN and other media reported that ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on the Moscow concert hall that killed at least 40 people and injured 100 others. The AP reported that the group’s Amaq news agency published the claim, but “it was not immediately possible to verify the claim.”
In the attack, several gunmen attacked a concert hall in Moscow today, Russia’s Federal Security Service reported. The Associated Press said authorities were investigating the incident as a terrorist incident — the worst in the country in several years.
Photos and videos from the scene show that Crocus City Hall was engulfed in flames, and local officials said the roof was at risk of collapsing. They also said that more than 100 people had been evacuated from the 6,200-capacity venue, which was hosting a concert by popular Russian rock band Picnik. The TASS news agency said the band members were unharmed.
Crocus City Hall has ties to Western businesses as well. Donald Trump held the Miss Universe pageant there in 2013. Eric Clapton, Dua Lipa and Sia have performed there.
The Russian Ministry of Culture canceled events across the country.
The attack comes days after Russian President Vladimir Putin tightened his grip on power in what his critics described as ill-advised elections.
No party immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred in the Krasnogorsk suburb located on the northwestern outskirts of Moscow, and the attackers were not arrested. Russian officials said that the attack was carried out by a number of people who showered the hall with gunfire and threw explosives, causing it to catch fire.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said that if Ukraine or any of its citizens were involved in the attack, the perpetrators should be tracked down and killed without mercy, including officials of the state that committed such a terrible assault. “.
Ukraine has already denied any such connection.
“Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions at Crocus City Hall. Everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield,” Ukrainian advisor Volodymyr Zelenskyy Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on X.
White House spokesman John Kirby said, “The images are horrific and difficult to watch.” “Obviously, our thoughts will be with the victims of this horrific shooting attack.”
He added, “There is no indication at this time that Ukraine or Ukrainians are involved in this shooting.”
On March 7, the US Embassy in Moscow issued a warning saying it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, including concerts, and American citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings for the next 48 years.” . Hours.” Today, it advised American citizens to “avoid the area (terrorist attack) and follow the instructions of local authorities.”
The incident brings to mind the 2002 attack in Moscow, when a group of what Russian officials said were Chechen terrorists took about 850 people hostage and killed more than 170 people at the Dubrovka theatre. Russian officials ended up filling the hall’s ventilation system with a chemical, killing all the attackers – who were said to number up to 50 – and more than 100 hostages. The BBC reported at the time that many of them died of gas poisoning, while others were shot dead.
There were many questions left unanswered about the 2002 attack, with some claiming that the Russian government may have been behind the atrocities as a way to justify the war in Chechnya.
One such agent was defector FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 after being poisoned with polonium 210 in London. A public inquiry in the United Kingdom later concluded that Litvinenko’s murder was carried out by two men, one of whom was a former member of Russia’s Federal Protective Service, and that they were likely acting under the supervision of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB, with Putin’s approval.
Friday’s attack comes nearly six years after the St. Petersburg subway explosion that killed at least 15 people and injured 45 others.
In November 2015, Islamic terrorists stormed the Bataclan concert hall in Paris as part of coordinated attacks across the city. Ninety people were killed in the shooting at the scene, and 40 more were killed across the French capital that night.
Ted Johnson and Tom Tabb contributed to this report.