23 March 2024

A man lays flowers at a makeshift memorial in front of the Crocus City Hall, a day after a gun attack outside Moscow that killed dozens of people.

Russian investigators say the death toll from the shooting at a Moscow-region concert hall has reached 93, as a top security official said 11 people, including four of the suspected gunmen, have been detained in Russia’s worst terrorist attack in nearly two decades.

The national Investigative Committee announced the higher toll in a statement on March 23, more than 12 hours after camouflaged-clad attackers burst into the venue on Moscow’s outskirts and opened fire on people waiting for a concert to begin.

More than 120 people were wounded and hospitalized in various conditions, health officials said.

The attack, which the Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for, was Russia’s worst terrorist attack in nearly two decades.

In its statement, the Investigative Committee said the deaths were caused by gunshot wounds and asphyxiation apparently from burning materials. The attackers used an unspecified flammable substance to set fire to the venue, the committee said, which burned part of the roof of the Crocus City venue.

https://www.rferl.org/embed/player/0/32873571.html?type=video

Meanwhile, Aleksander Bortnikov, the director of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying 11 people had been detained, including four of the suspected gunmen.

No further details were released.

The Islamic State militant group said it carried out the attack, in a statement released a few hours after the violence erupted at the Crocus City concert hall, where a popular Soviet-era rock band prepared to perform.

U.S. officials confirmed the authenticity of the claim in comments to multiple U.S. media.

As of late morning March 23, President Vladimir Putin had made no public statements about the incident. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying that Putin “gave all the necessary instructions,” but gave no further details.

Emergency workers worked to clean up the site on March 23, which was badly damaged by the fire.

Video posted on social media shortly after the attack began showed concertgoers entering the concert hall and taking their seats when pandemonium erupted. As bullets sprayed around the hall, hundreds of people could be seen running for exits while others sought cover.

The scheduled concert was for a Soviet-era band called Piknik.

Hours after the incident began, Telegram channels affiliated with Islamic State ran a statement saying the group’s fighters “attacked a large gathering…on the outskirts of the Russian capital Moscow.”

The statement by Islamic State said the attackers had “retreated to their bases safely,” though that claim could not be independently confirmed.

U.S. officials confirmed the authenticity of the claim in comments to multiple U.S. media.

Two weeks earlier, on March 7, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow had warned Russia that “extremists” had imminent plans for an attack in the capital.

On the same day as the U.S. Embassy announcement, the Federal Security Service claimed it had stopped an attack on a Moscow synagogue by Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan, known as ISIS-Khorasan or ISIS-K.

The attack was the worst in Russia since 2004, when gunmen seized more than 1,000 hostages at a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan. More than 330 people, nearly half of them children, ultimately died in that attack.

A growing number of world leaders condemned the attack.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was quoted as saying that he “condemns in the strongest possible terms” the incident, and the United States, France, Turkey, Italy, the European Union, and other leaders also issued statements, deploring the violence.

The Crocus City Hall is a popular concert venue in a high-end district on the edge of Moscow that attracts major Russian musical acts.

https://www.rferl.org/a/moscow-attack-islamic-state-russia-terror/32874123.html