©Reuters. A Russian national flag is seen lowered over the seat of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on the day of mourning, declared following a deadly shooting at the Crocus City Hall concert hall, in Moscow, Russia, March 24, 2024. REUTERS/ Shamil
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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia lowered flags to half-mast on Sunday for a day of mourning after dozens of people were killed with automatic weapons at a rock concert outside Moscow in Russia’s deadliest attack in two decades. years.
President Vladimir Putin declared a day of national mourning after pledging to track down and punish all perpetrators of the attack, in which 133 people, including three children, were killed and more than 150 injured.
“I express my deep and sincere condolences to all those who lost their loved ones,” Putin said in an address to the nation on Saturday, his first public comments on the attack. “The whole country and all our people mourn with you.”
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, but Putin has not publicly mentioned the Islamic militant group in connection with the attackers, who he said were trying to flee to Ukraine. He claimed that some on the “Ukrainian side” had prepared to push them across the border.
Ukraine has repeatedly denied any role in the attack, which Putin also attributed to “international terrorism”.
People laid flowers at Crocus City Hall, the 6,200-seat concert hall outside Moscow where four gunmen stormed Friday shortly before the Soviet-era rock band Picnic performed its hit “Afraid of Nothing.”
The men fired their automatic weapons in short bursts at terrified civilians who fell screaming under a hail of bullets.
It was the bloodiest attack on Russian territory since the 2004 Beslan school siege, when Islamic militants took more than 1,000 people hostage, including hundreds of children.
Long queues formed in Moscow to donate blood. Blood banks said Sunday they now have enough blood supplies for four to six months.
Across Moscow, billboards featured an image of a candle, the date of the attack and the words “We cry.” In other cities, people laid flowers.
Countries around the world expressed horror at the attack and sent their condolences to the Russian people.
Armed men
Putin said 11 people had been arrested, including the four gunmen, who fled the concert hall and headed to the Bryansk region, about 340 km (210 miles) southwest of Moscow.
“They tried to hide and headed towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared on the Ukrainian side for crossing the state border,” Putin said.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said the gunmen had contacts in Ukraine and were captured near the border.
The suspects have been taken to Moscow and may appear in court later in the day, according to local news agencies.
Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering a major European war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it was typical of Putin and “other crooks” to try to deflect blame.
The Islamic State, the Islamic group that once sought control over areas of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Amaq agency said on Telegram. On Saturday evening, the Islamic State released what it said was footage of the attack on its Telegram channels.
In video footage published by Russian media and Telegram channels with close ties to the Kremlin, one of the suspects said he had been offered money to carry out the attack.
“I shot people,” the suspect said in poor, heavily accented Russian, his hands tied, his hair held by an interrogator and a black boot under his chin.
When asked why, he replied: “For money.” The man said he had been promised half a million rubles (just over $5,000). One was shown answering questions through a Tajik translator. Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon spoke to Putin about the attack.
ISLAMIC STATE
The White House said the U.S. government shared information with Russia earlier this month about a planned attack on Moscow and issued a public warning to Americans in Russia on March 7. He said Islamic State was solely responsible for the attack.
“There was no Ukrainian involvement,” US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said.
Russian officials have bristled at public comments from the United States about the attack and say Russian investigators must be allowed to draw their own conclusions.
The United States and other Western countries, whose relations with Moscow have been strained due to the war in Ukraine, also sent messages of condolence to the Russian people.
If the attack was the work of the Islamic State, it was unclear why the group had chosen this moment to strike Russia. Putin changed the course of the Syrian civil war by intervening in 2015, supporting President Bashar al-Assad against the opposition and the Islamic State.