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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Joanna Walters (now) and Martin Belam (earlier)

Some victims of Moscow shooting in critical condition, authorities say – as it happened

Moscow Terrorist RIA Crocus City Hall Russia Islamic State Tass

This blog has now closed. You can read our full report on the attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow here

The Islamic State on Saturday released on its Telegram channels what it said is footage of the attack on a concert hall near Moscow, Reuters reports.

The 1.31-minute video shows a close-up view of one of the gunmen opening fire on several people as he enters what appears to be the concert hall.

Updated

Summary

Hello to our liveblog readers coming to us for news on the massacre at a pop concert on the outskirts of Moscow late on Friday.

It’s just after 1am in Moscow and the official death toll remains at 133. Some of the wounded and injured have been described as being in critical condition, and many people still do not have confirmation of the whereabouts of their loved ones. Victims were taken to several hospitals for treatment.

The burnt-out shell of the Crocus City Hall building, where four gunmen are reported to have shot people and then set off fire bombs, is still smouldering and firefighters and investigators remain on the scene. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, but while Russia says it has the attackers in custody, it has made no mention of the Islamic State and has only claimed, without evidence, that Ukraine was involved, which Ukraine denies.

Here’s where things stand:

  • US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson issued a statement on Saturday saying that the Islamic State bears sole responsibility for the deadly attack near Moscow on Friday and there was no Ukrainian involvement “whatsoever”. The US government a few weeks ago shared information with Russia about a planned attack in Moscow and issued a public advisory to Americans in Russia on March 7, Watson added.

  • The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, used his nightly public address to condemn Russia for claiming that Ukraine had been involved in the attack and was seeking to help the attackers escape. Calling Russian president Vladimir Putin a “low-life”, Zelenskiy added: “What happened yesterday in Moscow is obvious: Putin and the other scum are just trying to blame it on someone else … They always have the same methods.”

  • Russian television has aired footage of the detention and questioning of four men the authorities say are suspected of carrying out the deadly attack on a Moscow-area concert hall. Russia’s Channel One television showed footage of four suspects and their damaged white Renault car. It said they had been captured by special forces in the village of Khatsun in the western Bryansk region, which is close to borders with Ukraine and Belarus.

  • Neither Vladimir Putin, nor any of his government representatives, have responded to claims by the Islamic State religious terrorist group that they were responsible for the attack on a pop concert in the Moscow suburbs on Friday night.

  • Several security analysts have said that the claim of responsibility by the Islamic State for the massacre of Russian concertgoers appears to be plausible and fits with a pattern of previous marauding attacks by Islamist militants.

  • The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, currently in the Middle East, issued a statement on Saturday afternoon that the US condemns “terrorism in all its forms and stand[s] in solidarity with the people of Russia in grieving the loss of life from this horrific event”. He called the attack “a heinous crime”.

  • The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group said on Saturday that four of its militants carried out an attack on a concert hall in a Moscow suburb that Russian authorities said had killed at least 133 people, and that they used firebombs among its weapons

  • The four suspected gunmen detained after the deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow are all foreign citizens, Russia’s interior ministry said.

  • US intelligence gathered information just this month that ISPK, a branch of the Islamic State group based in Afghanistan, was eyeing Russia for a terrorist attack, the New York Times reported.

  • Putin told the Russian people that Ukraine is linked to the Crocus City Hall terror attack. In a video address lasting five-and-a-half minutes on Saturday, the newly re-elected Russian president said Russian security forces believed they had apprehended all four direct participants in the attack, who they said were caught heading for Ukraine, which they said was preparing to receive them over the border. Kyiv has rubbished the claims.

  • Putin described the attack as a “bloody, barbaric terrorist act”, and said the victims were “dozens of peaceful, innocent people – our compatriots, including children, teenagers and women”. He said the Russian Federation would “identify and punish everyone who prepared the terrorist attack”.

  • Ukraine has denied any link to the attack. Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said attempts to connect the two were “absolutely untenable”. He said: “Ukraine has not the slightest connection to this incident. Ukraine has a full-scale war with Russia and will solve the problem of Russia’s aggression on the battlefield.” Neither Putin nor the FSB publicly presented any proof of a link with Ukraine.

  • On Saturday morning, 107 people remained in hospital after the attack, including three children, one of whom is described as being in critical condition. After a drive to receive blood donations in Moscow, deputy prime minister Tatyana Golikova said “there is enough medicine, blood and dressing materials”.

  • Putin has declared Sunday 24 March a day of national mourning. People have been laying flowers and toys as a tribute to the victims at the site of the attack, as well as outside Russian embassies all around the world.

  • Images from inside the venue show that the auditorium has been completely gutted by fire and the roof has collapsed. Russian authorities say people died both from gunshot wounds and the effects of the fire.

  • The terrorist attack has been widely condemned around the world. Notwithstanding tensions caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Britain’s foreign secretary David Cameron, European commission president Ursula von der Leyen and French president Emmanuel Macron have been among those condemning the attack and offering condolences. Putin spoke to the leaders of Belarus and Uzbekistan by phone. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also offered his support, saying terrorism is “the common enemy of humanity”.

Updated

Islamic State solely responsible for Moscow attack, no Ukraine involvement - White House

The Islamic State bears sole responsibility for the deadly attack near Moscow on Friday and there was no Ukrainian involvement, the US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said on Saturday, Reuters reports.

The US government early this month shared information with Russia about a planned attack in Moscow and issued a public advisory to Americans in Russia on 7 March, Watson said in a statement:

ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever.

Very late on Friday, Watson posted on X/Twitter about US warnings relayed to Russia.

And:

Updated

Here’s more on the relationship between the Islamic State and Russia and between Tajikistan and the branch of the religious terrorism group based chiefly but not wholly in the Tajik neighbour of Afghanistan.

More, including from Paweł Wójcik, an independent analyst who’s quoted in a Guardian piece written by Russian affairs reporter Pjotr Sauer.

Wójcik, a specialist in Islamic State messaging and propaganda, said IS messaging after the Moscow attack was similar to that of previous attacks that the group claimed in Tehran and Kabul.

“The messaging we saw from IS following the attack was standard,” Wójcik told the Guardian. Read Sauer’s full piece here.

Updated

“Deadly Moscow Attack Shatters Putin’s Security Promise to Russians” is the headline of a New York Times analysis piece, with the line below saying: “The tragedy outside Moscow is a blow to a leader riding an aura of confidence only days after a stage-managed election victory.”

The report says, in extract: “Less than a week ago, President Vladimir V Putin of Russia claimed a fifth term with his highest-ever share of the vote, using a stage-managed election to show the nation and the world that he was firmly in control.

“Just days later came a searing counterpoint: His vaunted security apparatus failed to prevent Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack in 20 years.

“The assault on Friday, which killed at least 133 people at a concert hall in suburban Moscow, was a blow to Mr Putin’s aura as a leader for whom national security is paramount. That is especially true after two years of a war in Ukraine that he describes as key to Russia’s survival – and which he cast as his top priority after the election last Sunday.

The election demonstrated a seemingly confident victory. And suddenly, against the backdrop of a confident victory, there’s this demonstrative humiliation,” Aleksandr Kynev, a Russian political scientist, told the New York Times in a phone interview from Moscow.

Mr Putin seemed blindsided by the assault. It took him more than 19 hours to address the nation about the attack, the deadliest in Russia since the 2004 school siege in Beslan, in the country’s south, which claimed 334 lives. When he did, the Russian leader said nothing about the mounting evidence that a branch of the Islamic State committed the attack.

“Instead, Mr Putin hinted that Ukraine was behind the tragedy.”

You can read the whole report here.

Updated

Russian lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said the attackers suspected of shooting up and burning the concert hall near Moscow had fled in a Renault vehicle that was spotted by police in Bryansk region, about 340 km (210 miles) southwest of Moscow on Friday night. He said a car chase ensued after they disobeyed orders to stop, Reuters reports.

Khinshtein said a pistol, a magazine for an assault rifle, and passports from Tajikistan were found in the car. Tajikistan is a mainly Muslim Central Asian state that used to be part of the Soviet Union.

Here is some interesting extrapolation.

Hundreds of Russian firefighters are still dealing with the burnt-out shell of the concert hall in Krasnogorsk on the outskirts of Moscow, while security forces across the country remain on high alert.

It’s coming up to midnight in Moscow on Saturday and many people are still reported missing from the assumed terrorist attack that took place on Friday night when thousands were packed into the Crocus City Hall for a pop concert.

Relatives of people who had been attending the concert are still waiting desperately for news, following the Russian authorities reporting that 133 people had been killed and at least 145 wounded or injured and rushed to numerous hospitals.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said 11 suspects had been apprehended and of those four were the chief perpetrators who breached the concert hall and shot people, then lit the building on fire. Interrogations are continuing, the authorities say.

Updated

Just a few more details from Kyiv now.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Saturday that Russian president Vladimir Putin was seeking ways to divert blame for a massacre at a concert hall near Moscow on Friday, Reuters reports.

He said it was “absolutely predictable” that Putin had remained silent for 24 hours before tying the shooting rampage to Ukraine.

He added that the hundreds of thousands of what he called “terrorists” that Putin had sent to fight and be killed in the war in Ukraine would “definitely be enough” to have stopped terrorist attacks at home.

There’s a bit more from AFP. Zelensky announced, after Putin said the suspects had been fleeing towards Ukraine:

What happened yesterday in Moscow is obvious: Putin and the other scum are just trying to blame it on someone else … They always have the same methods.

He continued:

That low-life Putin, instead of dealing with his Russian citizens, addressing them, was silent for a day, thinking about how to bring it to Ukraine. Everything is absolutely predictable.

Updated

Zelenskiy speaks out

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is speaking out now saying that Russian president Vladimir Putin and others are seeking to divert the blame for the Moscow concert massacre onto Ukraine, Reuters reports.

Russia invaded Ukraine just over two years ago, and despite being pushed back from its all-out offensive – aimed at taking the capital Kyiv and the country – to occupying a portion of eastern and southern Ukraine, the war is grinding on with Ukraine’s counteroffensive since last summer now struggling.

Putin earlier today claimed that Ukraine had collaborated with the terrorist suspects who massacred at least 133 people on Friday night at a pop concert.

Zelenskiy is now saying it was “absolutely predictable” that Putin waited until the day after, then found a way to tie the massacre to Ukraine, Reuters reports.

Updated

For the past few hours, there have been varying and pretty grim reports that a suspect was captured by Russian federal agents, who then cut off one of his ears, which the AFP has now also reported. Our correspondent Pjotr Sauer has been monitoring all this and selectively posting and re-posting.

This:

And this:

And this:

Updated

The Russian interior ministry said earlier on Saturday that all four suspected gunmen were foreign nationals, the AFP reports.

Russian television on Saturday aired footage of the detention and questioning of four men suspected of carrying out the deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday night.

A Russian lawmaker has said some of those detained are from Tajikistan, an impoverished post-Soviet state that borders Afghanistan and whose nationals have participated in previous Islamic State attacks.

What were you doing at Crocus?” a young bearded man seated on the ground is asked.

“I shot people ... for money,” he answers in broken Russian. He goes on to say he was offered “half a million rubles and had received half of it on a bank card”.

That’s about US$5,425. The man added that the people who had hired them had supplied them with the weapons, corresponding on the Telegram secure-messaging platform without giving their names.

The footage also shows one suspect being led along a snowy track in a forest. The dark-haired man in a light brown T-shirt has blood pouring down his cheek from his ear.

He too is shown being questioned with a bandage wrapped around his head, his lips and nose bloodied and swollen.

Asked what the suspected attackers did with their weapons, he says they had been left “somewhere on the road”.

Earlier, a graphic video was posted online, apparently showing the detention of the same suspect.

It showed a man in camouflage cutting off part of the ear of a dark-haired man, trying to make him eat it and then hitting him on the face.

Russian television showed other suspects with cuts to their faces.

Updated

Russian TV airs footage of terrorist attack suspects

Russian television on Saturday aired footage of the detention and questioning of four men suspected of carrying out the deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.

Russia’s Channel One television showed footage of four suspects and their damaged white Renault car.

It said they had been captured by special forces in the village of Khatsun in the western Bryansk region, which is close to borders with Ukraine and Belarus.

In footage shot at night and in daylight, the detained men speak Russian with an accent.

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for Friday night’s attack, when a group of gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow and set it ablaze.

They killed at least 133 people.

Updated

The decimated remains of the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, on the outskirts of Moscow, are still smouldering.

It’s just gone 10pm in the Russian capital and crews are still working at the fire-gutted remains of the concert hall.

Russian authorities say they have 11 people in custody, including the four main gunmen who shot people in the hall.

The Islamic State, the religious terrorist group that claims responsibility for the attack, claimed the gunmen got away, however.

The exact details of what happened have yet to be independently verified or officially established.

None of the claims by ISKP, an offshoot of the Islamic State in central Asia, based mainly in Afghanistan, have been publicly acknowledged by Russian authorities. ISKP stands for Islamic State Khorasan Province.

Updated

Interim summary

Hello, again, global blog readers. It’s just gone 9pm in Moscow. We’ll continue to bring you all the developments in news from the apparent terrorist attack that occurred on the outskirts of the Russian capital on Friday night.

Here’s where things stand:

  • Neither the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, nor any of his government representatives have responded to claims by the Islamic State religious terrorist group that they were responsible for the attack on a pop concert in the Moscow suburbs on Friday night.

  • Several security analysts have said that the claim of responsibility by the Islamic State for the massacre of Russian concertgoers appears to be plausible and fits with a pattern of previous marauding attacks by Islamist militants.

  • The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, currently in the Middle East, issued a statement on Saturday afternoon that the US condemns “terrorism in all its forms and stand[s] in solidarity with the people of Russia in grieving the loss of life from this horrific event”. He called the attack “a heinous crime”.

  • The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group said on Saturday that four of its militants carried out an attack on a concert hall in a Moscow suburb that Russian authorities said has killed at least 133 people, and that they used firebombs among its weapons

  • The four suspected gunmen detained after a deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow are all foreign citizens, Russia’s interior ministry said.

  • US intelligence gathered information just this month that ISPK, a branch of the Islamic State group based in Afghanistan, was eyeing Russia for a terrorist attack, the New York Times has reported.

Updated

Police and Russian special forces still surround the concert hall on Saturday. Here are some views from passers-by, blood donors and emergency workers, in reporting via the AFP agency. Most only wanted to give the wire service their first name. Maxim, a 37-year-old who works for the ruling United Russia political party, said:

Yesterday was a great tragedy for all of us. We cannot remain indifferent.

Maxim said that he knew people who had been inside the hall and “went through hell”, but that all were still alive.

On advertising hoardings and at bus stops across Moscow, posters were put up showing a candle and the slogan: “22/03/24 - We mourn.”

With steady rain falling, about 150 people waited outside one blood donor centre in north-west Moscow earlier on Saturday following an appeal by authorities. Alexandra, a 35-year-old air logistics specialist, said:

I came to help. When you can see what happened from your balcony, you understand what the reality is.

Alexandra added that all citizens had a “duty” to give aid, and that she lived near the Crocus City Hall, which had been almost completely burned down in the attack.

Vladislav, an 18-year-old student also in the blood donation queue, said:

When you see the situation you don’t want to remain isolated, you want to help.

Updated

Russians in shock and mourning.

Sorrow.

Candles.

It’s almost 9pm in Moscow now and night has fallen.

Updated

Neither Russian president Vladimir Putin nor any of his government representatives have responded to claims by the Islamic State religious terrorist group that they were responsible for the attack on a pop concert in the Moscow suburbs on Friday night.

This comes despite widespread official and expert views from outside Russia and outside Islamist militant circles declaring that reports that IS was responsible are credible, although not officially confirmed.

Peter Neumann, German security specialist, said the claim of responsibility, the modus operandi, the alleged involvement of Muslim gunmen from former Soviet central Asia and the fact that the United States had warned of an impending “extremist” attack in Russia all pointed towards IS, Reuters reports. Neumann posted on X/Twitter:

*Conclusion* It wasn’t Putin, it wasn’t Ukraine. It was ISIS!

Updated

Comments from other security experts that the Reuters news agency has gathered include Yassin Musharbash, a German journalist and security specialist, saying the language, content and channels of communication that were used for the claim of responsibility showed that the claim definitely came from the Islamic State.

In a post on X/Twitter, he said that did not mean it was factually true that the group had carried out the attack, but that this was plausible.

In the past, militant groups have been known to claim attacks carried out by others, if they fit with their preferred targets and propaganda goals.

IS has strong motivation to strike Russia, which intervened against it in Syria’s civil war in 2015 on the side of President Bashar al-Assad.

Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center said ISIS-K “sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims”.

Updated

Security experts see credibility in Islamic State claims of responsibility for attack

A claim of responsibility by the Islamic State for a massacre of Russian concertgoers near Moscow appears to be plausible and fits with a pattern of previous marauding attacks by Islamist militants, security analysts said on Saturday, Reuters reports.

One leading expert said, however, it was unusual and striking that the assailants had formed and attempted to execute an escape plan instead of pursuing their rampage to the point of being gunned down.

Adam Dolnik, a Czech security expert who has studied past Islamist attacks in India, Kenya, Russia and elsewhere, said the Islamic State claim appeared credible, although “that will not stop the Russians from leveraging this for their foreign policy agenda vis-a-vis Ukraine and the west”.

Dolnik said in a telephone interview that attacks by marauding gunmen were a typical modus operandi in recent years for IS and al-Qaida.

He noted the Islamic State has a record of previous attacks against Russia, including the bombing of a 2015 flight from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg and a 2022 attack on the Russian embassy in Kabul. Earlier this month, Russia’s FSB said it had foiled an attack on a Moscow synagogue by ISIS-K, an affiliate of the group. Dolnik said:

If you line up all these things together, then I think it’s completely conceivable that this would be an IS attack.

The Guardian adds that IS is claiming their attackers escaped while Russia (without acknowledging IS) has said the attackers were captured during an attempt to flee south (Putin claims, without evidence, they were going to escape to Ukraine with Ukrainian assistance) and are alive in Russian detention.

Updated

The United States strongly condemns the attack by armed men near Moscow on Friday that killed at least 133 people and injured many dozens more, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Saturday, Reuters reports:

We send our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed and all affected by this heinous crime. We condemn terrorism in all its forms and stand in solidarity with the people of Russia in grieving the loss of life from this horrific event.

Blinken is currently in the Middle East trying, so far without success, to help broker some form of a ceasefire in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and the release of hostages still held by Hamas in the Palestinian territory it controls.

Note: this post originally said 143 killed, which was a figure taken directly from Reuters but should not have found its way into our blog. The figure here has now been corrected and Reuters has since corrected, too.

Updated

In videos and eyewitness accounts, a picture of terror and confusion emerges as the men burst into the concert hall firing automatic weapons, shooting at point-blank range into prone bodies, then stalked through Crocus City Hall on Moscow’s outskirts for nearly an hour as panicked concertgoers scrambled through the bowels of the building to find a way out.

“I saw a tall man in camouflage,” Alexander, a witness in the concert hall, told Russian state media. “They didn’t say anything. They just started shooting at the people in front of them.”

Astonishingly, many people in the hall pulled out their mobile phones and caught footage of the gunmen methodically firing into the crowds, as well as the panicked reactions of others fleeing for the exits. “Put your phone away and crawl!” one man can be heard screaming in footage posted online, as the gunmen fire into the crowds below the balcony. Some on the lower levels had to crawl out past the dead and wounded.

Yulia Kharitonova and her boyfriend were late to the concert by Piknik, a Russian rock band formed in Leningrad in the 1970s. As they rushed into the hall just after 8pm, the gunmen opened fire.

“It turns out they were right behind us,” she told the Astra Telegram channel. “We came in … and there were not many people there. [The attackers] shot and ran to where there were more people. I was shot in the shoulder, my boyfriend was hit in the arms and legs.

“A woman with a bullet through her temple fell right next to me,” she continued. “A cheerful woman was selling tickets at the entrance, and then we ran away, and she was lying with these tickets with a bullet in her head. I still have this picture in front of my eyes. We ran over the bodies through the same doors [we came in through], we already heard sirens, the police and ambulances were coming.”

Updated

The Guardian is about to publish a report gathered from eyewitnesses to the attack, claimed by Islamic State, on a concert on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday night that killed 133 people.

Here’s an extract:

The girl lies in a hospital bed, staring straight toward the ceiling. The left side of her face is swollen, her left arm wrapped in gauze.

In a preternaturally calm voice, she speaks on camera of how the gunmen in the Crocus City concert hall spotted her and a small group of people as they fled the carnage of the worst terror attack on Russian soil in decades.

“They saw us,” she told RT, a Russian state-funded news agency. “One of them ran back and started shooting at people. I fell to the floor and pretended to be dead. I was bleeding,” she said, pointing at her temple.

The gunmen opened fire into some of the bodies as they lay on the ground, she said.

“The girl lying next to me was killed.”

The gunmen then set fire to the hall, apparently hoping to kill all those left inside.

“Then the flames flared up. They closed the front door, but they probably couldn’t close the lock,” said the woman, who did not give her name. “I was lying under the door, breathing air. After some time, I crawled out, three minutes passed, maybe four. I looked around, crawled to the exit. I realised that there was no one there and went outside.”

Updated

The group that has claimed responsibility for the attack on the concert hall in Russia on Friday night, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), also claimed it carried out the attack on a crowd in Kerman in southern Iran in January.

That occurred during the marking of the anniversary of the killing of Qassem Suleimani, the Iranian senior Revolutionary Guards commander, during the administration of US president Donald Trump.

At least 84 people died in that attack when two blasts ripped through the crowd near Suleimani’s tomb four years after he was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad. Suleimani had been a staunch enemy of IS, which resents the damage he did to its cause in Iraq and Syria.

ISKP was also behind another suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport, Afghanistan, in August 2021, killing 170 Afghans and 13 US troops, in the process of carrying out the retreat from the country ordered by the US president, Joe Biden, a few months earlier. Its focus may have been Russia on Friday, but less than three years ago it was US forces.

Last year, leaks from US intelligence showed that ISKP, based in Afghanistan, was conducting “aspirational plotting” in the US, Europe and Asia, with targets such as the last World Cup in Qatar. Whatever the west’s wider relationship with Moscow, counter-terror investigators know it is time to be particularly vigilant.

Updated

It was a warning that proved grimly prophetic. Just over two weeks ago, as Russia’s presidential election was reaching its final stages, the US embassy in Moscow said it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts” over the ensuing 48 hours.

The unusually clear public alert was repeated by the UK, which reiterated its longstanding advice, warning British citizens against going to Russia. As a close ally in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, Britain will have seen whatever raw intelligence the US warning was based on, most likely intercepted communications.

No attack came within that timeframe, but it is now tragically clear the respite was only temporary. Friday night’s terrorist attack by a group of gunmen on crowds attending a pop concert on the outskirts of Moscow has left at least 133 dead and 140 wounded, responsibility for which was claimed by Islamic State.

Whether more details underpinning the warning were passed from the US to their Russian counterparts is unclear, given the two countries are engaged in a proxy war in Ukraine, nor is it certain the alert would have been well-received. But it is an uncomfortable reminder that large-scale terror attacks have not gone away.

Full report here.

The Five Eyes is a longstanding intelligence-sharing coalition of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Russia’s claim that Ukraine is involved in the Friday attack on the outskirts of Moscow “lacks credibility”.

Updated

Key event

An online information agency close to the Islamic State, the Amaq agency, has published a photograph of what it claims are the four attackers in the Crocus City Hall terrorist assault, according to The Insider, a news outlet based in Riga, Latvia, that covers Russian news and keeps a gimlet eye on Russian propaganda and fake news.

The Insider team said they examined images of two suspects and compared their outfits to the picture put out by Amaq, and reports the following, which we’ve used Google Translate to interpret:

As The Insider was able to notice, the color, cut and print on the clothes of two of them coincides with the clothes of those detained on suspicion of committing a terrorist attack. Earlier, the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, reported to Putin about the detention of 11 people, including all four terrorists allegedly directly involved in the terrorist attack at Crocus. Telegram channels published a photo of one of the detained suspects. According to preliminary data, we are talking about 19-year-old native of Dushanbe Muhammadsobir Fayzov. During his arrest, he was wounded in the eye and is now undergoing surgery.

State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein reported earlier that the Renault car in which the suspects were driving was discovered at night near the village of Khatsun, Karachevsky district, Bryansk region. The car did not stop at the request of law enforcement officers and tried to escape. Margarita Simonyan [editor-in-chief of the state-controlled broadcast channel RT and described by Newsweek as a “Kremlin propagandist”] published an interrogation of one of the detainees. The man’s clothing also matches that of one of the militants in the photograph published by the Amaq agency.

Updated

As a reminder of some Russia-related news from Friday and its ties to the latest developments in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, here are a few points and a link to the other liveblog the Guardian is running on its site at the moment.

The surprise US resolution introduced at the United Nations Security Council in New York on Friday morning, urging a ceasefire in Gaza linked to a hostage deal, was vetoed by Russia, as well as China, meaning that with veto powers, the resolution was not adopted.

This extended the five-month impasse in the international body over the Israel-Gaza war, which has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians. Read a full news report here from my Washington colleague Julian Borger and analysis from my London colleague Patrick Wintour.

On Saturday, the UN secretary general António Guterres said the world had seen enough of the horrors in Gaza and appealed for a ceasefire to allow in more aid.

He spoke at the crossing on the Egyptian side of Rafah, where most of Gaza’s population has sought refuge, but Israel has vowed to send in ground troops against Hamas militants, despite the fears of Guterres and other global leaders.

“Palestinians in Gaza – children, women, men – remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare,” Guterres said. “I carry the voices of the vast majority of the world who have seen enough”.

Our global team is following news developments out of Gaza and the Middle East and you can read that as it happens here.

Updated

The Guardian has compiled a new, short video summarising the news of the terrorist attack on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday night.

It’s carefully edited but, to warn readers, still contains the sound of shots from high-powered guns the attackers are believed to have carried, and shows the terrible blaze and aftermath inside the concert hall, which was brought under control by around midnight local time.

Updated

The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group said on Saturday that four of its militants carried out an attack on a concert hall in a Moscow suburb that Russian authorities said killed at least 133 people and used firebombs amongst its weapons, the Agence-France Presse (AFP) reports. IS said on one of its Telegram channels:

The attack was carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives and firebombs.

The militant group said its fighters killed “dozens of Christians” as part of its “raging war” with countries it said were fighting Islam.

The jihadists had already said on Friday night they carried out the attack, and claimed their fighters had “returned to base safely”.

This contradicts the assertions of Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin, which has not reacted to the militant group’s claim, said 11 people had been arrested “including four terrorists” involved in the attack.

Russia is fighting IS in Syria and the jihadist group has also had a presence in the Muslim-majority Russian republics of Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya.

The group has carried out attacks in Russia but has never before said it was behind such a major atrocity.

Updated

The four suspected gunmen detained after a deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow are all foreign citizens, Russia’s interior ministry said on Saturday, Reuters reports.

Russia said it had arrested all four gunmen suspected of carrying out the shooting massacre, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, pledged to track down and punish those behind the attack.

There is still little detail on this, so do stay tuned.

Updated

The Russian interior ministry is issuing a statement saying that the attackers in the Moscow concert hall tragedy are “not Russian citizens”.

This latest line is just emerging and we’ll have more for you in a moment.

The Reuters news agency is releasing details.

Updated

US told Russia Islamic State was planning to attack Moscow - report

US intelligence gathered intelligence just this month that ISPK, a branch of the Islamic State group based in Afghanistan, was eyeing Russia for a terrorist attack, the New York Times has reported, citing unnamed US officials.

The outlet goes on to explain that IS has been relatively quiet until recently but has been stepping up efforts to launch attacks on anti-Islamist targets in Europe and beyond. Some plots had been thwarted, leaving experts to believe that IS had diminished scope, until now.

Referring to the ISPK as ISIS-K, the New York Times quotes an analyst who said that IS has been critical of Vladimir Putin and Russian propaganda.

Colin Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York, told the New York Times:

ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years [and] accuses the Kremlin of having Muslim blood in its hands, referencing Moscow’s interventions in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria.

The US team has now taken this blog from our colleagues in London and we’ll keep you up to date with the news from Russia as it develops and reaches us.

Updated

Summary of the day …

  • Vladimir Putin has told the Russian people that Ukraine is linked to the Crocus City Hall terror attack on Friday night that killed at least 133 people. In a video address lasting five-and-a-half minutes, the newly relected Russian president said Russian security forces believed they had apprehended all four direct participants in the attack, who were caught heading for Ukraine, which was preparing to receive them over the border. Kyiv has rubbished the claims. 11 people have been detained in total.

  • Islamic State has claimed it carried out the attack, something which Putin did not mention in his address. He described it as a “bloody, barbaric terrorist act”, Putin said the victims were “dozens of peaceful, innocent people - our compatriots, including children, teenagers, and women”. He said the Russian Federation would “identify and punish everyone who prepared the terrorist attack”.

  • Ukraine has denied any link to the attack. Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said attempts to connect the two were “absolutely untenable”. He said “Ukraine has not the slightest connection to this incident. Ukraine has a full-scale war with Russia and will solve the problem of Russia’s aggression on the battlefield”. Neither Putin nor the FSB publicly presented any proof of a link with Ukraine.

  • 107 people remain in hospital after the attack, including three children, one of whom is described as being in critical condition. After a drive to receive blood donations in Moscow, deputy prime minister Tatyana Golikova said “there is enough medicine, blood, and dressing materials”. Moscow authorities have said they will pay compensation to those affected, and arrange funerals for those killed.

  • Putin has declared Sunday 24 March a day of national mourning. People have been laying flowers and toys as a tribute to the victims at the site of the attack, and alos outside Russian embassies all around the world.

  • Images from inside the venue show that the auditorium has been completely gutted by fire and the roof has collapsed. Russian authorities say people died both from gunshot wounds and the effects of the fire.

  • The terrorist attack has been widely condemned around the world. Notwithstanding tensions caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Britain’s foreign secretary, Ursula von der Leyen, Emmanuel Macron and Nato have been among those condemning the attack and offering condolences. Putin spoke to the leaders of Belarus and Uzbekistan by phone. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also offered his support, saying terrorism is “the common enemy of humanity”

Death toll in Crocus City Hall terror attack rises to 133

Tass reports the Russian Investigative Committee has announced that the death toll from Friday’s shooting and arson terror attack at the Crocus City Hall has risen to 133.

41 people have been identified and named as killed by the ministry of health. 107 people are in hospital.

The Russian Embassy in the UK has posted a thank you message to those who have left flowers in London as a tribute to the victims of yesterday’s attack.

Three children still in hospital – one in critical condition

RIA has published a short video clip of a medical press conference talking about the condition of those in hospital. In it, deputy prime minister Tatyana Golikova announced:

At this point in time, there are 107 patients in medical institutions. Of these, three are children, one child is in critical condition, two children are in serious condition.

Among the adults, 15 are in extremely serious condition, 42 are in serious condition. We actively interact with all medical institutions.

We provide and continue to provide the necessary medical care to everyone. Once again I want to emphasise that there is enough medicine, blood, and dressing materials.

Updated

Russian authorities have issued some more pictures from inside the Crocus City Hall as investigations and a clean-up operation continue.

Here is a transcript of another part of Vladimir Putin’s address to the nation, in which he compared the terror attack at Crocus City Hall to massacres carried out by Nazis, an allusion not just to the second world war but also a term the Russian president has frequently used to describe Ukraine’s government and Ukrainian forces during the course of the war there.

Putin said:

I repeat, investigative and law enforcement agencies will do everything to establish all the details of the crime. But it is already obvious that we are faced not just with a carefully cynically planned terrorist attack, but with a prepared and organized mass murder of peaceful, defenseless people.

The criminals calmly and purposefully set out to kill, to shoot at point-blank range our citizens, our children. Just like the Nazis once carried out massacres in the occupied territories, they decided to stage a show execution, a bloody act of intimidation.

All perpetrators, organizers and customers of this crime will suffer fair and inevitable punishment. Whoever they are, whoever guides them. I repeat, we will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this attack on Russia, on our people.

We know what the threat of terrorism is. We count here on interaction with all states that sincerely share our pain and are ready in practice to really join forces in the fight against a common enemy - international terrorism with all its manifestations.

Terrorists, murderers, non-humans who do not and cannot have a nationality face one unenviable fate - retribution and oblivion. They have no future. Our common duty now: our comrades at the front, all citizens of the country, is to be together in one formation. I believe it will be so.

Putin praises work of emergency services and bravery of people at Crocus City Hall

In a video address to the Russian nation lasting about five-and-a-half minutes, Russian president Vladimir Putin praised the work of emergency services and the bravery of ordinary people caught up in the attack.

Describing it as a “bloody, barbaric terrorist act”, Putin said the victims were “dozens of peaceful, innocent people - our compatriots, including children, teenagers, and women.”

He went on to say:

Doctors are now fighting for the lives of the victims, those who are in serious condition. I am sure they will do everything possible and even impossible to preserve the life and health of all the wounded.

Special words of gratitude to the ambulance and air ambulance crews, special forces soldiers, firefighters, rescuers who did everything to save people’s lives, bring them out from under the fire, from the epicentre of fire and smoke, and to avoid even greater losses.

I cannot ignore the help of ordinary citizens who, in the first minutes after the tragedy, did not remain indifferent and indifferent and, along with doctors and security officers, provided first aid and delivered the victims to hospitals.

Putin: all four attackers were detained while heading to Ukraine after attack

In his address to the nation Russian president Vladimir Putin has confirmed that Russia believes it has apprehended all four men who directly staged the attack at the Crocus City Hall. He said they were all apprehended heading towards Ukraine.

All reports so far have suggested the arrests happened in Bryansk, a region to the south-west of Moscow heading towards the Russia-Ukraine border.

In his speech, Putin asserted that on the Ukrainian side they were preparing to receive the men. He said:

All four direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack, all those who shot and killed people, were found and detained. They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border. A total of 11 people were detained.

The Federal Security Service of Russia and other law enforcement agencies are working to identify and uncover the entire accomplice base of terrorists: those who provided them with transport, outlined escape routes from the crime scene, prepared caches, caches of weapons and ammunition.

Earlier today Ukraine’s presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak suggested that the Russian account of events bore no relation to reality, saying the wanted men were moving towards “blocked border crossings where there is active fighting and where every metre is saturated with Russian security forces.”

Putin declares Sunday a national day of mourning

In his address to the nation, Vladimir Putin has declared that Sunday 24 March will be a national day of mourning.

Mourners have already gathered in many public places across Russia and in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, including at the location of the Crocus City Hall attack itself where people have been bringing flowers and children’s toys to a makeshift memorial.

Putin: Russian Federation will 'identify and punish everyone who prepared the terrorist attack'

Russian president Vladimir Putin has made his first public comments since the Crocus City Hall attacks in a video address to the nation, offering condolences, and saying “The Russian Federation will identify and punish everyone who prepared the terrorist attack”.

On its Telegram channel, Tass quoted Putin saying:

The organizers of the terrorist attack were preparing a demonstrative execution and a bloody act of intimidation.

The Russian Federation will identify and punish everyone who prepared the terrorist attack. Only retribution and oblivion await terrorists; they have no future.

The common duty of Russians now is to be together as one, and so it will be. No one can shake the unity of Russian citizens.

Russia has always become even stronger during the most difficult trials, and it will be so now. No one will be able to sow poisonous seeds of discord or panic and in Russia

Russian intelligence services are working to identify terrorist accomplices, Putin said.

The investigation will do everything to establish all the details of the terrorist attack, the president noted.

Podolyak: 'any attempts to connect Ukraine to the terrorist attack are absolutely untenable'

In a long post on social media, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak has repeated his denial that Kyiv had anything to do with the terror attack at Crocus City Hall, saying “any attempts to connect Ukraine to the terrorist attack are absolutely untenable.”

He said:

Ukraine has not the slightest connection to this incident. Ukraine has a full-scale war with Russia and will solve the problem of Russia’s aggression (aggression, by the way, with a deliberate terrorist component) on the battlefield. The versions of Russian special services regarding Ukraine are absolutely untenable and absurd.

Erdoğan condemns attack and says terror is 'the common enemy of humanity'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday condemned the “heinous terrorist attack” in a Moscow concert hall that has left at least115 people dead.

“We strongly condemn this heinous terrorist attack targeting innocent civilians,” Erdoğan told a public rally in the capital Ankara.

“Terrorism is unacceptable no matter who it comes from or who the perpetrator is.”

AFP reports Erdoğan said Turkey shared Russia’s pain, adding: “We’ll continue to fight against terror, the common enemy of the humanity.”

Turkey’s president has exerted considerable diplomatic effort to attempt to mediate between Russia and Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Turkey was instrumental in helping broker a grain corridor deal.

Turkey has repeatedly launched attacks at Kurdish separatists which it considers to be terrorist groups inside Syria and Iraq.

Updated

Ukrainian military intelligence official: claim Ukraine linked to attack 'another lie' from Russia

Ukraine was not involved in Friday’s shooting attack near Moscow and suggestions of a Ukrainian link “have nothing in common with reality,” a spokesperson for Kyiv’s military spy agency said on Saturday.

Reuters reports Andriy Yusov, of the Ukrainian defence ministry’s main directorate of intelligence, told it: “This is of course another lie from the Russian special services, which has nothing in common with reality and does not stand up against any criticism.”

He went on to say “Ukraine was of course not involved in this terror attack. Ukraine is defending its sovereignty from Russian invaders, liberating its own territory and is fighting with the occupiers’ army and military targets, not civilians.”

Sergey Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, has visited a hospital where people injured in the Crocus City Hall attack are being treated.

RIA quotes him saying at the Botkin hospital that “Today there are 80 people injured during the terrorist attack in Moscow clinics. The best Moscow doctors are fighting for their lives and health.”

Earlier reports had said more than 120 people were hospitalised.

RIA reports, citing the Moscow regional health authority, that two people who were hurt in the Crocus City Hall terror attack have been discharged from hospital.

Russia, which is currently banned by Uefa and Fifa from competitive football after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has announced that it has cancelled a planned friendly football match with Paraguay which was due to be held in Moscow on Monday.

The Russian Football Union had already announced the cancellation of all matches in their competitions scheduled for this weekend.

Russian state-owned media Tass has just published on its Telegram channel this round-up of its headlines about the Crocus City Hall attack. It wrote:

The death toll has reached 115. According to the governor of the Moscow region, [Andrei] Vorobyov, “the number of victims will grow significantly”.

11 people involved in the crime were detained, including four direct perpetrators. They were found on the way to the border with Ukraine, where, according to security officials, they “had relevant contacts”

One of the detainees said that he committed a crime “for money, about 500,000 rubles (£4,300 / €5,000 / $5,400)”. He said he had been contacted on Telegram and provided him with weapons;

Security measures have been strengthened in Moscow and the regions, mass events have been cancelled. Foreign countries, including unfriendly ones, condemned the terrorist attack and expressed condolences.

The quotes which Tass ascribes to one of the suspects have come from one of a number of unverified videos circulating on Telegram and on social media which purport to show the arrest and interrogations of several of the suspects in the Bryansk region of Russia, which is to the south-west of Moscow.

Some of the videos have been distributed by Margarita Simonyan, a Russian state TV journalist and the head of Russia Today, who has also said that the death toll has risen to over 140, but without providing an official source for the figure.

Updated

Nato has also voiced condemnation of the attack, with the alliance’s spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah posting to say:

We unequivocally condemn the attacks targeting concertgoers in Moscow. Nothing can justify such heinous crimes. Our deepest condolences to the victims and their families.

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has added her voice to those condemning the attack in Russia. She wrote on social media:

I strongly condemn the terrorist attack against civilians in the Crocus City Hall in Moscow claimed by the Islamic State. My thoughts are with the victims and their families during this tragic time.

Russia has ordered flags to be flown at half-mast at its embassies around the world. Some Russian regions have declared a three day period of mourning.

Russia’s FSB tries to link Ukraine to Moscow attack despite IS claiming responsibility

Pjotr Sauer has this latest report rounding up the most recent developments:

Russia’s security services say they have arrested four gunmen responsible for the shooting that killed at least 115 people at a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow, in one of the worst terror attacks in the country’s history.

The director of Russia’s federal security service (FSB) informed Vladimir Putin that 11 individuals had been arrested in connection with Friday’s terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow, including four suspects involved in the shooting. Putin has not appeared or commented in public so far after the assault.

Islamic State, through an affiliated news agency, claimed responsibility for the attack late on Friday in a post on Telegram, in which they claimed the gunmen had managed to escape afterwards. A US official said Washington had intelligence confirming Islamic State’s claim.

There are already signs that Moscow will try to pin blame for the attack on Ukraine, despite the claim of responsibility by Islamic State. Without providing any evidence, the FSB on Saturday appeared to point the finger at Kyiv, saying that the gunmen were arrested while trying to cross into Ukraine. “They had contacts on the Ukrainian side,” the FSB said in a statement.

Kyiv has vehemently denied it had any involvement in the attack. “Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential administration, wrote on social media. “It makes no sense whatsoever. Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods.”

Read more of Pjotr Sauer’s report here: Russia’s FSB tries to link Ukraine to Moscow attack despite IS claiming responsibility

Russian president Vladimir Putin has spoken on the phone to the president of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. A read-out of the call via the Kremlin press pool said the Uzbek leader strongly condemned the bloody terrorist attack and asked Putin to convey his words of support to the families of the victims and wishes for a speedy recovery to those injured.

People have been paying tribute at Russian embassies around the world to those killed in the Crocus City Hall attack. Here are some of the latest pictures sent to us over the news wires from London, Berlin and Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan.

Reuters reports that Russia’s Investigative Committee said that some of those killed in the Crocus City Hall attack died from gunshot wounds while others died in the huge fire that broke out in the complex.

It cites, Baza, a news outlet Reuters states has good contacts in Russian security and law enforcement, which reported 28 bodies were found in a toilet and 14 on a staircase. “Many mothers were found embracing their children,” it said.

The death toll is still expected to rise.

Militant Islamist group Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, but Russian authorities, without providing any evidence, have been attempting to link the attack to Ukraine.

The FSB security service said “all four terrorists” had been arrested while heading to the Ukrainian border, and that they had contacts in Ukraine.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Telegram “Now we know in which country these bloody bastards planned to hide from persecution – Ukraine.”

Cameron: UK condemns Moscow attack 'in the strongest terms'

The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has expressed his condemnation of the Crocus City Hall attack. Posting to social media, the former prime minister wrote:

The UK condemns in the strongest terms the deadly terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow. We offer our heartfelt condolences and express our deepest sympathy to the families of the many victims. Nothing can ever justify such horrific violence.

David Lammy, who is the UK opposition Labour party’s foreign spokesperson, has also condemned the attack. Lammy posted to social media to say:

The terrorist attack on Russian civilians last night in Moscow was appalling. We condemn it in the strongest terms. Our thoughts are with every victim and family affected by this cowardly act.

RIA reports the Belarus ambassador to Russia, Dmitry Krutoy, has said his country’s special services are actively cooperating with their Russian counterparts to prevent terrorists escaping across the border.

In Russia, Tass has spoken to two people who were in the Crocus City Hall last night as part of a Russian Sports Dance Championship which was taking place there in a separate part of the building from the attack.

Nadezhda Erastova told TASS “Everyone was heroes – they didn’t panic, they were able to get out. Thanks to our coordinated actions, not a single participant in the competition was injured.”

Andrei Telnov said “During the terrorist attack, we were not in the concert hall, we were in another part of the building, but we heard shots and smelled smoke.

“Representatives of Crocus took measures to remove people, calmed everyone down as much as possible and led them out through emergency exits.

“People, of course, were worried and scared. I myself was not in the best emotional state; yesterday was one of the most difficult days of my life.”

My colleague Jason Burke examines who might be resonsible for the attack:

Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack, praising the “Islamic fighters” who carried it out. Many commentators and US officials have pointed to the IS affiliate called Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) as prime suspect – though so far there is no evidence that this is the case.

ISKP is a branch of Islamic State in Afghanistan. The name comes from that given to a region by some local Islamic rulers and so explicitly rejects modern national frontiers while evoking what its members consider the lost glory and power of Muslim empires.

IS leaders, like many Islamic militants, are mindful of Russian support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and see Moscow as part of the broader coalition of Christian or western forces against Islam.

In September 2022, ISKP militants claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul and some experts say the group has opposed the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in recent years. Michael Kugelman, of the Washington-based Wilson Center, said ISKP “sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims” and counts as members a number of central Asian militants with their own grievances against Moscow.

ISKP leaders may also see Russia, along with China and others as important to the continued rule of the Taliban and are seeking to undermine them. An attack in Moscow would thus combine local and more global agendas.

Read more here: Who is thought to be behind the Moscow attack?

Death toll in Crocus City Hall attack rises to 115

Russia’s Investigative Committee has announced that the death toll for Friday night’s terror attack at the Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscos has risen to at least 115, including three children.

121 people are believed to have been hospitalised, with about 60 of them, including a small number of children, being described as in “serious” or “extremely serious” condition. So far Russia’s ministry of health has published the identities of 41 people known to have been killed.

Russia’s Federal Security Service has issued a statement confirming it has arrested 11 suspects after the Crocus City Hall terror attack on Friday night, including four who it says participated directly in the attack. It claims that the suspects were attempting to flee to the Russia-Ukraine border. The FSB said it had informed president Vladimir Putin of the developments.

Leading politicians have accused Ukraine of being involved in the attack, which Kyiv denies. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing any evidence.

Here are two of those images I mentioned earlier which show that the inside of the auditorium at the Crocus City Hall has been ravaged by fire in the wake of yesterday’s terror attack. The pictures were released by the Russian Emergency Ministry.

There is still some confusion over the death toll and number of wounded in the Crocus City Hall terror attack on Friday night, when gunmen using automatic weapons stormed a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow. Russian authorities have said that at least 93 people were killed, and that the toll is expected to rise.

Russian media, citing the health ministry, now say that 121 people have been hospitalised, which is an increase on the figure of 107 given earlier in the day. The dead and those hospitalised are believed to include some children. Russia’s health ministry has published a list of 41 people who were killed who have been formally identified.

RIA reports that the head of the Moscow regional blood centre has said the city now has enough donations of blood to cope with the wounded.

Russian politician and former army officer Andrey Kartapolov has said “there must be a clear answer on the battlefield” if there has been any involvement of Ukraine in the Crocus City Hall attack.

Without providing any evidence, he told Russian news service RIA Novosti that “Ukraine and its patrons are the main stakeholders in the terrorist attack at Crocus”.

Kartapolov, who now heads Russia’s Duma defence committee, was sanctioned by the UK and the EU in 2015 for his involvement in Russia’s military campaigns in eastern Ukraine, and the US applied sanctions to him after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched by Russia in February 2022.

In Russia, on its Telegram channel, Tass has published images which show that the auditorium where a concert by the band Picnic was due to be held last night and where much of the shooting took place during the attack, has been completely destoryed by fire. Citing the ministry of emergency situations, it confirmed that the roof collapsed as a result of the fire.

The BBC Russian service is reporting some more detail on those in hospital after the attack. Citing Russia’s ministry of health it reports that 16 people including one child are in an “extremely serious” condition, and that 44 other people including two children are in a “serious” condition.

The ministry of health in the Moscow region has published the identities of 41 of the at least 93 people known to have been killed in the attack. On the list, the youngest victim identified so far is a 33-year-old, and the oldest is 71.

Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Moscow from the scene of the Crocus City Hall attack, where at least 93 people are known to have been killed, including three children.

Tass reports that the leader of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has spoken to Russian president Vladimir Putin on the phone to express his condolences over the Crocus City Hall attack.

Russia's FSB confirms it has arrested 11 suspects

Russia’s Federal Security Service has issued a statement confirming it has arrested 11 suspects after the Crocus City Hall terror attack on Friday night. It claims that the suspects were attempting to flee to the Russia-Ukraine border.

In the statement, reported by Russian media, the FSB says:

As a result of the actions of the special services and law enforcement agencies, 11 people were detained, including 4 terrorists who were directly involved in the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall.

After committing the terrorist attack, the criminals intended to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border and had relevant contacts on the Ukrainian side. The investigation into the terrorist attack continues.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Friday that Kyiv had nothing to do with the attack.

Crocus City Hall attack – what we know so far …

  • 93 people are now known to have died in a terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow. Three children are among the dead. 107 people are in hospital, with about 60 of them described as being in a serious condition. Authorities are yet to identify them all.

  • A number of gunmen stormed the concert hall, opening fire, and later set the venue ablaze. The Russian Investigative Committee said its preliminary findings were that the terrorists had used automatic weapons and flammable liquid to start the fire. There had been earlier reports that explosives were used.

  • Russian media has reported that president Vladimir Putin has been informed that 11 suspects have been detained, including four people directly responsible for the attack. A Russian lawmaker has claimed the two suspects were detained after a car chase in the Bryansk region, to the south-west of Moscow. The reports remain unverified.

  • Russia has yet to officially say who it belives carried out the attack. A claim has surfaced that the attack was carried out by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) a regional affiliate of the IS terrorist organisation. US intelligence told American news agencies that there’s “no reason to doubt” the IS claims of responsibility.

  • Russian intelligence sources have told Russian media that the US did provide a generalised warning that there might be a terror attack in Moscow. On 7 March the US embassy in Moscow had warned citizens to avoid large gatherings. Putin had dismissed the warnings in public on 19 March.

  • Moscow authorities have said they will pay compensation to those affected by the attack, and will organise funerals for the victims. People have been leaving flowers at a makeshift memorial at the Crocus City Hall, and many people have come forward to donate blood, to the extent that one hospital has had to turn would-be donors away.

Updated

Russia’s Investigative Committee, in issuing the new death toll of 93, has also warned that the toll is still expected to rise.

Tass reports the committee has confirmed that the terrorists used automatic weapons during the attack, and that they used flammable liquid to set the building on fire.

Here is our video report from last night with footage of the event. Some viewers may find the footage distressing.

Updated

Russian security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev has said yesterday’s attack at the Crocus City Hall shows what a serious threat terrorism is. He said those responsible for the attack would be punished.

Putin told some suspects detained as Crocus City Hall attack death toll rises to 93

Russian state-owned media is reporting that Russian president Vladimir Putin has been told that 11 suspects have been detained after the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack on Friday, which is now known to have killed at least 93 people, including three children.

The Russian Investigative Committee announced that 93 people had been killed early on Saturday morning. 107 people are believed to have been hospitalised, with many of them in what Russian media has described as a serious condition. The ministry of health has said five children are among those in hospital.

Media in Russia said that the head of Russia’s intelligence service had informed Putin that 11 people had been detained, four of whom were directly involved in the attack.

In a separate unverified report, citing a Telegram message from Duma lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein, Russian media reported that two people had been detained in Russia’s Bryansk region after a car chase. Bryansk is to the south-west of Moscow.

Appeals for blood donations have led to one Moscow hospital having to turn donors away because so many people have come forward.

Moscow’s authorities have said they will offer financial assistance to those affected by the shooting, and will organise funerals for the victims. People have been leaving flowers at the scene of the attack.

Updated

Sergey Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, has announced that the regional government will provide financial assistance to those affected by the attack. Tass reports the financial support will be available to both residents and non-residents of Moscow, and be between 500,000 and 3m rubles. (£4,300-£25,700 / $5,400-$32,500). Tass also reports that the Moscow region has said it will organise funerals for the victims.

Tass reports that a source in the Russian intelligence services has confirmed the US did warn of a terror attack, but said “it was of a general nature and did not contain specifics”.

Kremlin: Putin has been told that 11 suspects have been detained

Russian state-owned media is reporting that some people have been detained in connection with the attack, although this is unconfirmed.

RIA has posted to its Telegram channel, citing the Kremlin, saying that “The head of the FSB reported to Putin about the detention of 11 people, including all 4 terrorists directly involved in the terrorist attack in Crocus.”

Earlier, citing a Telegram message from Duma lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein, Russian media reported that two people had been detained in Russia’s Bryansk region after a car chase.

More details soon …

State-owned media RIA reports that so many people have turned up to donate blood after the attack that the Buyanov hospital in Moscow has had to ask people to return in the following days.

Maia Sandu, the president of Moldova, has posted to social media to say that they were “terrible images” at the scene of the attack. She said “Moldova condemns all forms of terrorism. Our thoughts are with those who lost loved ones and the injured.”

Tensions between Russia and Moldova have been running high, with Moldova – which borders Ukraine – having accused Russia of acting to destabilise the country. Russian troops are stationed inside Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria.

People have been leaving flowers at the scene of the attack.

One witness to the attack, who have their name as Dave Primov, has spoken to Associated Press about how events unfolded. They described panic and chaos when the assault began.

“There were volleys of gunfire,” Primov told the AP. “We all got up and tried to move toward the aisles. People began to panic, started to run and collided with each other. Some fell down and others trampled on them.”

State-owned Russian media RIA is reporting that a centre for families of those affected by the attack has been set up at the Kubik business centre, which is a couple of blocks away from the scene of the attack last night.

The press service of the Moscow regional governor’s office has issued some handout photos from the scene of the attack, as authorities continue to investigate the circumstances. The Russian Investigative Committee has also issued some images from the scene.

107 people in hospital after Crocus City Hall attack – Russian state media

Russian state media is reporting that 107 people are in hospital after the shooting attack at the Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow.

Tass reports that a list of those hospitalised has been published by the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. It reports that three women and one man are yet to be identified.

Messages of mourning have appeared across Russia and around the world as people wake up to the devastating news of Friday night’s Moscow concert hall attack.

People in Moscow are going en masse to donate blood at donor centres across Russia after yesterday’s terrorist attack, state news agency Ria reports.

Since the morning, there has been reportedly been a huge queue at the Gavrilov Blood Center in Moscow.

Opening summary …

Moscow has suffered it’s worst terror attack in years after several gunmen fired at concertgoers at the Crocus City Hall music venue on Friday night, killing at least 60 people and injuring 145, in an attack claimed by Islamic State militants.

State news agency Ria on Saturday quoted a spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee as saying it was too early to say anything about the fate of the attackers.

Here is a summary of what we know from last night:

  • At least 60 people are dead and more than 100 are wounded after gunmen open fired at a rock concert at Crocus City Hall in a suburb of Moscow, Russian intelligence says.

  • Three children were among the dead, Ria cited the regional healthcare ministry as saying on Saturday.

  • Up to five gunmen were believed to be involved in the attack, which was later claimed by Islamic State in a post on Telegram.

  • Videos emerged showing gunmen in tactical gear opening fire with automatic weapons as panicked Russians fled for their lives.

  • A large fire broke out in the building, with part of the roof collapsing. It is now said to be mostly extinguished.

  • The White House says it warned Russia of a potential attack on “large gatherings” in Moscow earlier this month.

  • Russia did not immediately blame anyone for the attack.

  • President Putin has wished all those injured in the emergency at Crocus City Hall a speedy recovery and conveyed his gratitude to the doctors, Russia’s Tass state news agency reported.

  • Security at airports, transport hubs and across the capital has been tightened. All large-scale public events have been cancelled across the country.

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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
8 revelations from Cher's memoir
Cher details some of the famous people she grew up with and the desperation she felt being married to Sonny Bono
Salon
Salon
Trump's Grammatical Time Machine
The president-elect uses conditional grammar to craft self-fulfilling speculative historical fiction.
Reason
Reason
Duct-taped banana artwork sells at auction for almost £5m to crypto entrepreneur
Justin Sun purchased a certificate of authenticity that gives him the authority to duct-tape a banana to a wall and call it “Comedian.”
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Banana Taped To A Wall Sells For $6.2 Mn In New York
A fresh banana taped to a wall -- a provocative work of conceptual art by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan -- was bought for $6.2 million on Wednesday by a cryptocurrency entrepreneur at a New York auction, Sotheby's announced in a statement.
International Business Times
International Business Times
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