Putin calls Moscow concert hall attack a 'Barbaric terrorist act', announces March 24 as national mourning day

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called an attack on a concert hall that killed over 100 a “barbaric terrorist act” and announced a day of national mourning.

In a televised address to the nation, Putin said: “I am speaking to you today in connection with the bloody, barbaric terrorist act, the victims of which were dozens of innocent, peaceful people. … I declare 24 March a day of national mourning.”

Earlier in the day, Russia pointed the finger at Ukraine after Over 115 people were killed and hundreds wounded in Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack in the last two decades as gunmen dressed in combat fatigues entered a large concert hall in Moscow opened fire and detonated explosives. However, Ukraine denied the charges.

‘Four suspects were detained in Russia’s Bryansk region following the assault by gunmen with automatic weapons against people attending a rock concert at the Crocus City Hall on the edge of the capital,” The Federal Security Service was quoted as saying on Saturday.

Russian President Putin also said Saturday that the four gunmen who killed more than 100 at a Moscow concert hall had been arrested, and vowed harsh retribution for everybody involved in plotting the attack.

“All four perpetrators of the terrorist act who shot and killed people have been detained. They were travelling towards Ukraine … We will identify and punish everybody who stood behind the terrorists, who prepared the attack.”

Images shared by Russian state media Saturday showed a fleet of emergency vehicles still gathered outside the ruins of Crocus City Hall, which had a maximum capacity of more than 6,000 people.

Videos posted online showed gunmen in the venue shooting civilians at point-blank range. Russian news reports cited authorities and witnesses as saying the attackers threw explosive devices that started the fire. The roof of the theater, where crowds had gathered for a performance by the Russian rock band Picnic, collapsed early Saturday as firefighters spent hours fighting the blaze.

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

The head of Russia’s Federal Security Service told President Vladimir Putin on Saturday that four people directly involved in the attack were among 11 detained, Russian state news agency Tass said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India strongly condemns the heinous terror attack in Moscow and stands in solidarity with the government and the people of Russia in this hour of grief.

The accusation came after the Islamic State took responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on affiliated channels on social media. A US intelligence official told The Associated Press that US intelligence agencies had received information indicating that the group’s branch in Afghanistan was plotting an assault in Moscow. This intelligence was subsequently shared with Russian authorities.

In a statement posted by its Aamaq news agency, the IS’s Afghanistan affiliate said it had attacked a large gathering of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the claim.

A U.S. intelligence official told the AP that American intelligence agencies had gathered information in recent weeks that the IS branch was planning an attack in Moscow, and that U.S. officials had privately shared the intelligence earlier this month with Russian officials.

The official was briefed on the matter but was not authorized to publicly discuss the intelligence information and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Messages of outrage, shock and support for the victims and their families have streamed in from around the world.

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council condemned “the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack” and underlined the need for the perpetrators to be held accountable. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the terrorist attack “in the strongest possible terms,” his spokesman said.

Meanwhile hundreds of people stood in line on Saturday in Moscow to donate blood and plasma, Russia’s health ministry said.

Putin, who extended his grip on Russia for another six years in this week’s presidential vote after a sweeping crackdown on dissent, had publicly denounced the Western warnings of a potential terrorist attack as an attempt to intimidate Russians. “All that resembles open blackmail and an attempt to frighten and destabilize our society,” he said earlier this week.

In October 2015, a bomb planted by IS downed a Russian passenger plane over Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, most of them Russian vacation-goers returning from Egypt. The group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq but also in Afghanistan and Africa, also has claimed several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and other regions in the past years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.

With inputs from agencies.