MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday vowed to punish these behind the “barbaric terrorist attack” on a Moscow live performance corridor that killed greater than 130, saying 4 gunmen attempting to flee to Ukraine had been arrested.

Kyiv has strongly denied any connection, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Putin of attempting to shift the blame onto them.

Putin, in his first public remarks on the assault, made no reference to a press release by the Daesh group claiming accountability.

At least 133 folks had been killed when camouflaged gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall, in Moscow’s northern suburb of Krasnogorsk, after which set fireplace to the constructing on Friday night.

The Daesh group wrote on Telegram Saturday that the assault was “carried out by four Daesh fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives and firebombs,” as a part of “the raging war” with “countries fighting Islam.”

Daesh video

A video apparently shot by gunmen who carried out the lethal assault has been posted on social media accounts usually utilized by the group Daesh, in keeping with the SITE Intelligence Group.

The video, which lasts a minute and a half, exhibits a number of people with blurred faces and garbled voices, armed with assault rifles and knives.

They seem like on the foyer of the Crocus City Hall live performance venue in Krasnogorsk, northwest of the Russian capital.

The attackers fireplace a number of bursts of gunfire, quite a few inert our bodies are strewn about and a fireplace could be seen beginning within the background.

The video appeared on a Telegram account thought of, in keeping with the SITE monitoring group, to belong to Amaq, the information arm of Daesh.

‘Deadliest attack’

It is the deadliest assault in Russia for nearly twenty years and the deadliest in Europe to have been claimed by Daesh.

Russian officers count on the demise toll to rise additional, with greater than 100 wounded in hospital.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes main crimes, mentioned rescue employees had been nonetheless pulling our bodies from the burnt-out constructing on Saturday.

The emergency conditions ministry has to date named 29 of the victims, the blaze having difficult the method of identification.

“Terrorists, murderers, non-humans … have only one unenviable fate: retribution and oblivion,” Putin mentioned in his televised deal with Saturday.

Calling the assault a “barbaric, terrorist act,” he mentioned “all four direct perpetrators … all those who shot and killed people, have been found and detained.”

‘Blame game’

Russian tv confirmed safety companies interrogating 4 bloodied males, who spoke Russian with an accent, on a street within the western Bryansk area, which borders each Ukraine and Belarus.

“They tried to escape and were traveling toward Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” mentioned Putin.

Putin additionally in contrast the attackers to “Nazis” and mentioned the assault was an “atrocity, a strike against Russia and our people.”

Zelensky, in his night deal with Saturday, dismissed the suggestion that Kyiv had been concerned.

“What happened yesterday in Moscow is obvious,” he mentioned. “Putin and the other scum are just trying to blame it on someone else.”

“They always have the same methods. It has happened before. There have been bombed houses, shootings, and explosions. And they always blame others,” he added.

Russia has arrested 11 folks in reference to the assault, the FSB safety service mentioned. Earlier, the company had mentioned the attackers had “contacts” in Ukraine, with out elaborating.

‘Mourning’

Putin named Sunday a day of nationwide mourning.

And he promised: “All the perpetrators, organizers and those who ordered this crime will be justly and inevitably punished.”

The Investigative Committee mentioned the demise toll had to date reached 133 and the governor of the Moscow area mentioned rescuers would proceed to scour the location for “several days.”

Some 107 folks had been nonetheless in hospital, many in a vital situation, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova mentioned.

Daesh had first claimed accountability for the assault on Friday evening, repeating its declare once more on Saturday.

Some witnesses filmed the gunmen from the higher flooring as they walked via the stalls taking pictures folks, sharing the footage on social media.

Then “the terrorists used a flammable liquid to set fire to the concert hall’s premises, where spectators were located, including wounded,” the Investigative Committee mentioned.

Investigators mentioned folks died each from gunshot wounds and smoke inhalation after a fireplace engulfed the 6,000-seater venue.

Investigators mentioned a person who jumped on one of many gunmen as he was taking pictures on the concert-goers, “immobilizing” him and thus “saving the lives of people around him” would obtain an award.

Putin didn’t deal with Daesh’s declare of accountability in his first public remarks Saturday, which got here greater than 18 hours after the beginning of the assault.

‘Common terrorist enemy’

But in Washington, a press release from the White House condemning the assault described the Daesh group as a “common terrorist enemy that must be defeated everywhere.”

The head of the state-run RT media outlet, Margarita Simonyan, posted two movies of interrogations of two handcuffed suspects. They each admitted to the assault however didn’t say who had organized it.

The inside ministry mentioned all 4 of the suspected gunmen had been overseas nationals.

Russian Telegram channels — together with these with hyperlinks to the safety companies — mentioned they had been from Tajikistan, a rustic that borders Afghanistan and the place the jihadist group is energetic.

Tajikistan’s overseas ministry informed Russia’s TASS information company it was in shut contact with Moscow over the matter.

In Moscow, residents stood in lengthy traces within the rain to donate blood for these hospitalized, and mourners got here to put flowers exterior the live performance corridor.

Memorial posters that includes a single candle changed some promoting billboards within the capital and main occasions had been canceled throughout the nation.

Statements of condemnation from world leaders continued to roll in.

Just three days earlier, Putin had publicly dismissed a US warning of an “imminent” assault in Moscow as propaganda designed to scare Russian residents.

The US embassy in Russia had warned on March 7 that “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts,” advising warning over the next 48 hours.

Washington mentioned after the assault it had additionally shared particulars immediately with Moscow.

But chatting with FSB chiefs final Tuesday, Putin had referred to as it a “provocative” assertion and “outright blackmail… to intimidate and destabilize our society.”