dpa
Moscow
Two days after one of the most serious terrorist attacks in Russian history, the Islamic State extremist militia has published a video of Friday’s mass shooting at a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow in which at least 137 people were killed.
Four unidentified gunmen fired indiscriminately at concert-goers at the Crocus City Hall venue in north-west Moscow shortly ahead of a concert on Friday evening. Eyewitnesses also reported that they heard explosions in the building before a major fire broke out. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the deadly attack but the Russian authorities have yet to comment on that claim.
Islamic State’s Amaq mouthpiece published an almost 90-second video on Sunday, which is said to show the attackers at the scene of the attack. The Arabic subtitles state that the video shows “exclusive scenes” of the “bloody attacks on Christians.” At the beginning, a heavily armed man with an assault rifle is seen firing into a corridor where many lifeless bodies are already lying on the floor.
The camera then pans to one of the suspected terrorists, who stabs a person on the ground with a knife.
Four men then cross a deserted area of the Crocus City Hall event centre. The voices of the suspected perpetrators are distorted. According to Arabic subtitles, one person says: “Kill them without mercy” and “We have come for the cause of God.” By Sunday, the official death toll from the attack had risen to 137, including the missing employee of the Russian rock band Piknik, which was due to perform at the concert hall on Friday.
Another 154 people were injured, with many of them remaining in critical condition on Sunday, according to a report from the state news agency TASS, which cited the Moscow regional Civil Protection. Children are reportedly also among the dead and injured.
Russia observed a national day of mourning on Sunday and long lines continued to form in front of the site of the attack in Krasnogorsk outside Moscow with people looking to lay flowers and pay tribute to the victims.
There were also scenes of mourning in St Petersburg and other Russian cities. Abroad, Serbia and Nicaragua joined Russia with their own days of mourning. Eleven suspects, including four said to have been directly involved in the attack, have been arrested, according to Russian intelligence services.
The four main suspects were brought to the Russian capital for questioning on Saturday evening. As TASS reported, the four men were driven in a heavily secured convoy from the Bryansk region in the south of the country, which borders Ukraine and Belarus, where they had been arrested.
