Blindfolded Moscow attack suspects brought to Russian crime investigation HQ
Images have emerged showing the alleged suspects from Friday’s terror attack in Moscow being dragged into the headquarters of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).
On Friday, gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall music hall, opening fire on innocent concertgoers before the venue was set ablaze. Islamic State Khorasan or Isis-K, an Afghanistan-based affiliate of the terrorist group Islamic State, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
As of Sunday afternoon, 137 people were confirmed dead by ICRF, including three children.
Footage released by the committee shows Russian authorities dressed in camouflage and balaclavas appearing to haul blindfolded men, with their hands handcuffed behind their backs, into an official ICRF building.
Two of the handcuffed men are then shown with their heads pressed up against a wall before they are manhandled into another room.
The footage comes after Russian state media broadcasted videos purporting to show the arrest of the terrorist suspects on Saturday.
A state TV editor, Margarita Simonyan published a video on Telegram showing a man lying on his stomach with his hands bound behind his back, his chin resting on the boot of a camouflaged figure.
Some 14 hours after the first reports of the shooting, Russia’s FSB security service announced 11 people had been arrested.
The government later confirmed four of those arrested were the gunmen who opened fire in the concert hall on Friday, with Russia’s interior ministry saying they all were foreign citizens.
FSB also claimed the gunmen had contacts in Ukraine and were captured near the border – something Kyiv and the US have rejected.
In a television address broadcast to the nation on Saturday, Russian President Vladamir Putin alleged the suspects were stopped while preparing to cross the border into Ukraine where “a window” was prepared for them.
President Volodymyr Zelensky responded in his own video address, saying Mr Putin was seeking ways to divert blame for the massacre, adding it was “absolutely predictable”.
Earlier this month, the US had issued a warning of a potential terror attack targeting “large gatherings in Moscow”.
“The US government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its long-standing ‘duty to warn’ policy,” a US official said in a statement after the attack.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, an aide to Ukrainian President Zelensky, said of Russia’s claims: “The versions of Russian special services regarding Ukraine are absolutely untenable and absurd.”
On Saturday, a spokeswoman for the US National Security Council said Ukraine was not involved.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said on Sunday: “We have very little confidence in anything the Russian government says”.
The attack in Moscow took place at around 7.40pm local time on Friday evening as crowds gathered for a performance by Russian rock band Picnic, at a venue that can accommodate more than 6,000 people.
Eyewitnesses say the terrorists calmly walked around the music hall firing at spectators before throwing petrol bombs.
An audience member bravely tackled and “neutralised” one of the gunmen while he was reloading, according to the ICRF.
The man will be recommended for an award, the committee added.
