Death toll in Moscow concert attack rises to 115

Death toll from the Moscow concert hall attack climbs to 115, with Russia’s Investigative Committee warning numbers may increase

At least 115 people were killed in Friday’s attack on a Moscow concert hall by armed gunmen, Russian authorities said Saturday, warning the death toll was likely to continue rising.

“The emergency services have found more bodies while removing the rubble. The death toll now stands at 115 people,” Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement.

Russia arrests 11 over concert hall attack

Russia has arrested 11 people – including all four assailants – over Friday’s deadly attack on a concert hall, Russian news agencies reported on Saturday.

The head of the FSB security service informed Russian President Vladimir Putin “about the detention of 11 people, including all four terrorists directly involved in carrying out the attack,” Russian state news agencies cited the Kremlin as saying in a statement.

Concert hall attackers set fire to Moscow building with flammable liquid, Russia says 

The attack took place as crowds gathered for a performance by Picnic, a famous Russian rock band. Russian news reports said that visitors were being evacuated, but some said that an unspecified number of people could have been trapped by the blaze.

The prosecutor’s office said several men in combat fatigues entered the concert hall and fired at visitors.

Russian authorities said security was tightened at Moscow’s airports and railway stations, while the Moscow mayor canceled all mass gatherings scheduled for the weekend.

White House National Security Advisor John Kirby said Friday that he couldn’t yet speak about all the details but that “the images are just horrible. And just hard to watch.”

“Our thoughts are going to be with the victims of this terrible, terrible shooting attack,” Kirby said. “There are some moms and dads and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters who haven’t gotten the news yet. This is going to be a tough day.”

The attack followed a statement issued earlier this month by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that urged the Americans to avoid crowded places in the Russian capital in view of an imminent attack, a warning that was repeated by several other Western embassies.

Putin, who extended his grip on Russia for another six years in the March 15-17 presidential vote after a sweeping crackdown on dissent, earlier this week denounced the Western warnings as an attempt to intimidate Russians.

Russia was shaken by a series of deadly terror attacks in the early 2000s during the fighting with separatists in the Russian province of Chechnya.

In October 2002, Chechen militants took about 800 people hostage at a Moscow theater. Two days later, Russian special forces stormed the building and 129 hostages and 41 Chechen fighters died, most of them from the effects of narcotic gas Russian forces used to subdue the attackers.

In September 2004, about 30 Chechen militants seized a school in Beslan in southern Russia taking hundreds of hostages. The siege ended in a bloodbath two days later and more than 330 people, about half of them children, were killed.

Source: Newsroom