Eleven Suspects Captured in Russia After Moscow-Area Terror Attack Kills 133

Russia has detained 11 people in connection with a terrorist attack Friday evening at Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, a suburb of Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised speech that among the 11 were all four gunman suspected of carrying out what Reuters called a “shooting massacre.”

“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,” Putin said.

Neither Putin nor Russia’s FSB security service has provided any evidence to the public of a link between the accused terrorists and Ukraine, which Russian invaded just over two years ago.

Putin promised to punish those responsible for the attack.

“All the perpetrators, organisers and those who ordered this crime will be justly and inevitably punished. Whoever they are, whoever is guiding them,” Putin said, according to Reuters. “We will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this strike against Russia, against our people.”

Though the FSB also said that the suspects had “contacts in Ukraine,” Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told Reuters that that was “of course another lie from the Russian special services.”

“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,” he said.

Another unnamed Ukrainian official called the accusation of Ukrainian involvement “absurd,” the BBC reported.

“According to an unverified statement online, militant group Islamic State said it was behind the attack,” the outlet reported.

“The United States has intelligence confirming Islamic State’s claim of responsibility for the shooting, a U.S. official said,” according to Reuters. “The official, speaking on condition of anonymity said Washington had warned Moscow ‘appropriately’ in recent weeks of the possibility of an attack.”

On Saturday, the Islamic State released a photograph of four men it claimed were the four gunmen.

Russia’s state Investigative Committee said that 133 people were killed in the attack, but the city’s governor said that number was expected to “rise significantly” as emergency crews continue to sift through the charred remains of the concert hall, the roof of which was engulfed in a fire as the shooting occurred.

Investigators said the shooters carried cans of gasoline into the venue in rucksacks and used it to start the blaze.

It was not yet known how many victims had been shot and how many died in the first, but one outlet reported that among the dead, “Many mothers were found embracing their children.”

“Russian authorities said at least 145 people had been injured, with 16 people in a ‘critical state,’” The Guardian reported.

Putin has declared Sunday a day of mourning for the victims of the attack.

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