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Russia said on Saturday it had arrested 11 people, including four suspected gunmen, in connection with a shooting rampage that killed 133 people in a concert hall near Moscow, the deadliest attack in Russia for 20 years.<\/p>\n
The militant Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Friday\u2019s attack but there were indications that Russia was pursuing a Ukrainian link, despite a statement from Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak that Kyiv had nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s state Investigative Committee said 133 people had been killed. State TV editor Margarita Simonyan, without citing a source, had earlier given a toll of 143.<\/p>\n
In a televised address, Putin said 11 people had been detained, including the four gunmen. \u201cThey 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The FSB security service said the gunmen had contacts in Ukraine and were captured near the border. It said they were being transferred to Moscow.<\/p>\n
The FSB security service said \u201call four terrorists\u201d had been arrested while heading to the Ukrainian border, and that they had contacts in Ukraine. It said they were being transferred to Moscow.<\/p>\n
Neither Putin nor the FSB publicly presented any proof of a link with Ukraine, with which Russia has been waging war for the past 25 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we know in which country these bloody bastards planned to hide from pursuit \u2014 Ukraine,\u201d Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told Reuters<\/em>: \u201cUkraine 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\u2019 army and military targets, not civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the FSB version that the suspects were arrested en route to Ukraine was \u201cof course another lie from the Russian special services\u201d.<\/p>\n Putin cast the enemy as \u201cinternational terrorism\u201d and said that he was ready to work with any state that wanted to defeat it.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the perpetrators, organisers and those who ordered this crime will be justly and inevitably punished. Whoever they are, whoever is guiding them,\u201d Putin said. \u201cWe will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this strike against Russia, against our people.\u201d<\/p>\n A senior Russian lawmaker, Andrei Kartapolov, said that if Ukraine was involved, then Russia must deliver a \u201cworthy, clear and concrete\u201d reply on the battlefield.<\/p>\n Verified footage from Friday\u2019s attack showed camouflage-clad gunmen opening fire with automatic weapons at concert-goers in the Crocus City Hall near the capital. Video showed people taking their seats, then rushing for the exits as repeated gunfire echoed above screams.<\/p>\n Investigators said some died from gunshot wounds and others in a huge fire that broke out in the complex. Reports said the gunmen had lit the blaze using petrol from canisters they carried in rucksacks.<\/p>\n People fled in panic. Baza<\/em>, a news outlet with good contacts in Russian security and law enforcement, said 28 bodies were found in a toilet and 14 on a staircase. \u201cMany mothers were found embracing their children,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Russian lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said the attackers had fled in a Renault vehicle that was spotted by police in the Bryansk region, about 340 kilometres southwest of Moscow on Friday night. He said a car chase ensued after they disobeyed orders to stop.<\/p>\n Khinshtein said a pistol, a magazine for an assault rifle, and passports from Tajikistan were found in the car. Tajikistan is a mainly Muslim Central Asian state that used to be part of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n TV editor Simonyan published a video showing one of the suspects, a young, bearded man, being interrogated aggressively by a roadside, replying in heavily accented Russian to a series of barked questions. He said he had flown from Turkey on March 4 and had received instructions from unknown people via Telegram to carry out the attack in exchange for money.<\/p>\n The man was trembling throughout the questioning. He was initially shown lying on his stomach with his hands bound behind his back, his chin resting on the boot of a figure in a camouflage uniform. Later he was hauled up onto his knees.<\/p>\n Another man with cuts and bruises to his face was shown being questioned via an interpreter while sitting on a bench with bound hands and feet.<\/p>\n Russia has yet to publicly present evidence of any Ukrainian link to the attack.<\/p>\n President Vladimir Putin, re-elected last Sunday for another six-year term, has repeatedly told Russians that various powers, including countries in the West, are seeking to sow chaos inside Russia.<\/p>\n The Kremlin said Putin had held conversations with the leaders of Belarus and Uzbekistan in which all sides affirmed their willingness to work together to fight terrorism.<\/p>\n Verified video showed people taking their seats in the concert hall, then rushing for the exits as repeated gunfire echoed above screams. Other video showed men shooting at groups of people. Some victims lay motionless in pools of blood.<\/p>\n \u201cSuddenly there were bangs behind us \u2014 shots. A burst of firing \u2014 I do not know what,\u201d one witness, who asked not to be identified by name, told Reuters<\/em>.<\/p>\n Long lines formed in Moscow on Saturday for people to donate blood. Health officials said more than 120 people were wounded.<\/p>\n \u201cThe death toll is expected to rise,\u201d the Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes in Russia, said on Telegram.<\/p>\n The Moscow city and regional governments said they would provide financial support for the families of the victims and those injured, as well as pay for funerals.<\/p>\n Islamic State, the fighter group that once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack, the group\u2019s Amaq<\/em> agency said on Telegram.<\/p>\n Islamic State said its fighters attacked on the outskirts of Moscow, \u201ckilling and wounding hundreds and causing great destruction to the place before they withdrew to their bases safely\u201d. The statement gave no further detail.<\/p>\n The United States has intelligence confirming Islamic State\u2019s claim of responsibility for the shooting, a US official said on Friday. The official said Washington had warned Moscow in recent weeks of the possibility of an attack.<\/p>\n Putin had publicly dismissed Western warnings of an imminent attack in Moscow as propaganda designed to scare Russian citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did warn the Russians appropriately,\u201d said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, without providing any additional details.<\/p>\n The attack on Crocus City Hall, about 20km from the Kremlin, happened two weeks after the US embassy in Russia warned that \u201cextremists\u201d had imminent plans for an attack in Moscow.<\/p>\nPutin address<\/h2>\n
Suspect interrogated<\/h2>\n
Guns and screams<\/h2>\n
US intelligence<\/h2>\n