In order to mourn the 133 victims of an attack that took place at a packed concert venue in the Crocus City Hall of Moscow, a morning day is being observed in Russia.
This led to a change in the schedules of various TV channels. The flags across the country were lowered to half-mast, and a number of events were canceled or postponed.
Along with the 133 deaths in the country, over 140 people faced severe injuries due to the firing done by the gunmen who entered the concert venue and started firing indiscriminately. They didn’t settle on this. After firing, they set the value on fire. The Islamic State (IS) has taken responsibility for the attack.
The media outlet of IS, Amaq, in a recently posted image of four masked men, said that they were involved in the attacks. Russia has not taken these claims into consideration. Later on, IS shared a genuine video showing a gunman targeting several Russians at the concert. The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, claimed to have arrested all the gunmen.
On Saturday, while addressing the public on television, Mr. Putin declared the massacre a “barbaric terrorist act” and the deadliest one in the last 20 years. He also claimed that the attackers might have escaped to Ukraine. The claim was dismissed and considered “absurd” by Kyiv. A military intelligence directorate from Ukraine, Andriy Yusov, while talking to a news channel, said, “To suggest the suspects were heading to Ukraine would suggest they were stupid or suicidal.”
In response to the “blame” by the Russian President, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “This worthless Putin, instead of dealing with his citizens of Russia and addressing them, remained silent for a day, thinking about how to bring this to Ukraine.”
The US National Security Council claimed that a warning was issued to Russia regarding an attack on “large gatherings.” The White House called the attack “heinous” and said that IS is “a common terrorist enemy that must be defeated everywhere.”
Anastasia Rodionova, who attended the concert, while explaining the scenario at the concert hall, said, “They were just walking and gunning down everyone methodically in silence. The sound was echoing, and we could not understand what was where.” Another one said, “They threw some petrol bombs, everything started burning.” According to the reports, the powerful explosions resulted in the shattering of glass on the upper stories of the hall building. Helicopters and ambulances were called to extinguish the fire and transfer the injured to hospitals.
According to the reports given by the Russian Investigative Committee, in order to set the concert hall on fire, the attackers sprinkled some flammable liquids. The people lost their lives due to poisoning by the liquids in the gunshot wounds.
Memorials were held in different parts of Russia as well as in the UK, where people laid flowers, lit candles, and displayed billboards with the word “Skorbim” (“we mourn”) written on it.
Semyon Khraptsov, the husband of one of the displaced women during the concert, said, “I am in complete panic. I don’t know what to do, [I’m in] complete hopelessness.” He also told the media how he was continuously trying to call various hospitals to get to know about the whereabouts of his missing wife, but the lines were busy.
