Russian authorities have raised the death toll from Friday’s mass shooting at the Crocus City Hall to 137 people, including three children, up from an earlier estimate of 133,
The Investigation Committee disclosed that 62 bodies have been identified.
This came as Russia observed a national day of mourning.
According to state news agency, events at cultural institutions were canceled, flags were lowered, and TV entertainment and ads were suspended.
People brought flowers to a makeshift memorial near the burnt-out concert hall.
The news agency added that suspects in the Crocus City Hall shooting were brought to the Investigation Committee’s headquarters in Moscow.
Russia’s Investigative Committee also announced that guns and rounds of ammunition had been found both there and in a car that was used by the suspected gunmen to flee the scene.
The agency posted a video of the four suspects being dragged into its headquarters in Moscow.
There was no statement on the other seven suspects arrested in connection with the attack. Officials have not named the shooters, but said they were all foreign nationals.
Meanwhile, more than 5,000 people have donated blood to those injured in the attack, with many reportedly standing in long queues outside clinics.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Friday’s massacre, but there has since been indications that Russia was pursuing a Ukrainian link despite Kyiv’s insistence Ukraine had no involvement in the attack.
Islamic State released new videos of the attack on the Crocus City concert hall outside Moscow that left 133 people dead, corroborating the terror group’s claim to have masterminded the slaughter even as Russia has sought to place the blame on Ukraine, which Kyiv denies.
The videos, which were published by IS’s news agency, showed the gunmen filming themselves as they hunted concertgoers through the lobby of the Crocus City Hall and fired at them from pointblank range, killing scores of people.
At one point, one of the gunmen tells another to “kill them and have no mercy.”
White House Affirms Ukraine’s Non-Involvement In Concert Hall Attack
Also on Sunday, the White House asserted that Ukraine had “no involvement whatsoever” in the attack in the Moscow concert hall that killed at least 137 people.
Using an acronym for the Islamic State group, which has claimed responsibility for the attack, White House national security council spokesperson, Adrienne Watson, stated, “ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever.”
Watson added that a few weeks ago, the U.S government shared information with Russia about a planned attack in Moscow and issued a public advisory to Americans in Russia on March 7, 2024.
Additionally, the U.S Vice President, Kamala Harris, said in an interview that there was “no” evidence that Ukraine was involved.
“ISIS-K is actually, by all accounts, responsible for what happened,” she said.
The “K” refers to Khorasan, IS’s branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, disregarded the US intelligence reports saying that the Islamic State group was behind the Moscow concert hall attack.
“I wish they could have solved the assassination of their own President Kennedy so quickly,” she wrote on Telegram.
She added, “But no, for more than 60 years they have not been able to find out who killed him after all. Or maybe that was ISIS too?
“Until the investigation into the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall is completed, any phrase from Washington exonerating Kyiv should be considered as evidence.
“After all, the financing of terrorist activities of the Kyiv organised criminal group by the American liberal democrats and participation in the corrupt schemes of the Biden family have been going on for many years.”
Maria Zakharova
Kyiv has vociferously denied any links to the attack and has indicated it believes Moscow is preparing a pretext to escalate the conflict.
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