Russia observed a national day of sorrow on Sunday following a massacre in a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 130 people, the bloodiest attack in Europe claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to punish those responsible for the “barbaric terrorist attack,” announcing that four gunmen attempting to flee to Ukraine have been captured.
Kyiv has flatly denied any connection, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Putin of attempting to transfer blame to them.
“The whole country is in mourning with those who lost their loved ones in this inhumane tragedy,” Russian television channel Russia 24 said Sunday morning.
Putin’s sole public remarks on the incident made no mention of IS’s claims of responsibility.
On Friday evening, masked gunmen entered and set fire to the Crocus City Hall in Moscow’s northern district of Krasnogorsk, killing at least 133 people.
‘Machine guns, knives, firebombs’
On Saturday, the Islamic State organization announced on Telegram 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.”
According to the SITE intelligence agency, the shooters made a video lasting around a minute and a half and shared it on social media sites commonly used by IS.
The video appears to have been shot from the concert venue’s lobby and shows numerous people with blurred faces and garbled voices firing assault guns on the floor, with motionless bodies strewn about. A fire is also visible in the background.
The incident was Russia’s bloodiest since the Beslan school siege in 2004.
Russian officials expect the death toll to grow higher, with 110 people still hospitalized.
On Sunday, rescue workers were still retrieving victims from the burned-out structure as the nation mourned.
The emergency ministry has identified 29 of the fatalities, but the fire has complicated the process.
The ministry tweeted a video on Sunday showing heavy machinery arriving at the site to deconstruct damaged structures and collect debris.
‘Morally crushed’
On the streets of the capital on Sunday, there was shock and grief.
“It is a tragedy. I was morally crushed,” Ruslana Baranovskaya, 35, told AFP.
“People don’t smile … everybody feels the loss,” said 73-year-old Valentina Karenina, a pensioner, standing on a street off Red Square, next to the Kremlin in the centre of Moscow.
Museums, theaters, and cinemas across the country closed, and billboards were replaced with tribute posters.
Mourners continued to flock to the music theater in northwest Moscow to leave flowers in honor of the deaths.
More than 5,000 individuals donated blood following the attack, according to officials, with many waiting in long lines outside clinics.
On Saturday, Putin promised “retribution and oblivion” to the “terrorists, murderers, and non-humans” who perpetrated the “barbaric, terrorist attack.”
Several of his allies have urged for the lifting of the country’s death penalty moratorium, raising concerns among Kremlin opponents.
Russia said it has detained 11 people in connection with the attack, including all four perpetrators. It did not name the shooters, but stated that they were all foreign nationals.
Putin points to Ukraine
Putin has pointed to a Ukraine connection and has not publicly addressed IS’s claim of responsibility in the 36 hours since the attack.
“They tried to escape and were travelling towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” Putin said of the four attackers in a televised address to the nation on Saturday — his only public comments so far.
Ukraine’s Zelensky, in his own evening address Saturday, dismissed the suggestion that Kyiv had been involved.
“Putin and the other scum are just trying to blame it on someone else,” he said.
In Moscow, some doubted his claims that Ukraine was involved.
“I’m not inclined to the version about Ukraine’s involvement … this (attack) is more like those committed by Islamist extremists,” said Vomik Aliyev, a 22-year-old Muslim who often went to the concert hall.
Site search to continue
Russia’s Investigative Committee said that the death toll had risen to 133, and the governor of the Moscow area stated that rescuers will continue to search the site for “several days.”
Health officials reported Sunday that 110 patients remained in the hospital, with more than 40 in “critical” or “extremely critical” condition.
IS initially claimed credit for the attack on Friday night, then repeated it on Saturday and released a graphic video of the attackers carrying out the attack.
According to Russian authorities, after marching around the theatre and shooting attendees, they set fire to the structure, trapping many inside and killing them from smoke inhalation.