The Kremlin announced on Saturday the arrest of 11 people, including “four” attackers, after the attack carried out in a concert hall in the suburbs of Moscow the day before, which left at least 115 dead and was claimed by the group jihadist Islamic State (IS).
The director of the Russian security services (FSB) “informed” President Vladimir Putin of “the arrest of 11 people, including four terrorists involved in the attack,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
These four people suspected of being the perpetrators of the attack were arrested in the Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine and Belarus, the Investigative Committee then specified.
The FSB said the suspects had “proper contacts on the Ukrainian side” and planned to flee to that country.
The authorities have not provided any proof of these supposed links, the nature of which has not been specified, Ukraine for its part having denied any involvement on Friday.
Russian authorities have not commented on the IS claim and President Vladimir Putin has not appeared in public since the attack, the deadliest to hit Russia since the mid-2000s.
The death toll rose to 93 on Saturday morning and is expected to “rise further”, announced the Russian Investigative Committee. Earlier, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said that around a hundred people remained hospitalized.
According to the first elements of the investigation, the causes of these deaths are “gunshot wounds” and inhalation of fire smoke, indicated the Investigative Committee.
The attackers allegedly used “automatic weapons” and set the building on fire with a “flammable liquid,” investigators added.
ISIS, which Russia is fighting in Syria and which is also active in the Russian Caucasus, has already carried out attacks on Russian soil since the end of the 2010s. But the group has never claimed responsibility for an attack of such magnitude. scale in the country.
This group claimed on one of its Telegram accounts that its fighters had “attacked a large gathering […] in the vicinity of the Russian capital Moscow.
The jihadist organization declared that its commando then “returned to its base in complete safety”.
This assault, which Russian media began reporting around 8:15 p.m. in Moscow, was carried out by several armed individuals at Crocus City Hall, a concert hall located in Krasnogorsk, on the northwest exit of the Russian capital.
“Just before the start, we suddenly heard several machine gun bursts and a terrible woman’s scream. Then a lot of screaming,” Alexeï, a music producer who was in the dressing room at the time of the attack, told AFP.
AFP journalists saw the building engulfed in a massive fire on Friday evening, with plumes of black smoke escaping from the roof. The flames spread to nearly 13,000 m² of the building before the fire was contained, according to the emergency services.
The US Embassy in Russia warned its citizens two weeks ago that it was “closely monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, including concerts.”
On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin rejected these “provocative” statements. “All of this looks like pure and simple blackmail and a desire to intimidate and destabilize our society,” he said.
” In mourning “
Despite IS’s claim, many questions remain unanswered.
According to Russian media and MP Alexander Khinstein, some of the suspects are from Tajikistan.
The authorities of this Central Asian country said they had “not received confirmation from the Russian authorities regarding the false information currently circulating on the involvement of Tajik citizens”.
Since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Tajikistan has been confronted with a multitude of Islamist armed movements. In recent years, citizens of the country have been accused of being linked to jihadist attacks, particularly in Iran.
The Telegram news channels Baza and Mash, known to be close to the police, have published videos showing at least two armed men advancing in the hall and others on which we can see corpses and groups of people rushing towards the exit.
On Saturday, police and special forces were still deployed in front of Crocus City Hall, the top of the building blackened and partially destroyed by the flames of the day before, under a gray sky.
Hundreds of rescue workers were clearing debris after the roof had collapsed into the auditorium.
From the morning, long queues had formed in front of some blood donation centers in Moscow, according to images from state media.
In some bus stops in the city, posters also appeared showing a candle and the inscription: “We are in mourning 03/22/2024”, the date of the attack.
The international community denounced this assault, with the EU and Spain saying they were “shocked” and the White House “alongside the victims”.
The spokesperson for the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs assured “to condemn in the strongest terms” this act.
In Russia, security measures have been tightened and several public events have been canceled.