Attack in Moscow: day of national mourning in Russia this Sunday, Putin promises to track down and punish the perpetrators of the massacre

Journée de deuil national ce dimanche en Russie. MAXPPP – YONHAP

Onze personnes ont été arrêtées, dont les quatre assaillants armés suspectés d'avoir perpétré une fusillade et mis le feu à la salle de concert du Crocus City Hall vendredi soir. Ce dimanche, la Russie a mis les drapeaux en berne.

Russia lowered flags at half-mast on Sunday for a day of national mourning to commemorate the victims of the attack at a concert hall in the Moscow suburb of Moscow. deadliest attack in the country in twenty years. President Vladimir Putin has pledged to track down and punish all perpetrators of the attack, which left 133 people dead, including three children, and more than 150 injured.

Eleven people were arrested, including the four armed attackers suspected of having carried out a shooting and setting fire to the Crocus City Hall concert hall on Friday evening. "I express my deep and sincere condolences to all those who have lost loved ones", the Russian president said in a speech to the nation on Saturday. "The whole country and all our people are in mourning with you".

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack that occurred Friday evening, but Vladimir Putin has not publicly mentioned a relationship between the organization and the attackers . On the other hand, he mentioned Ukraine, assuring that the perpetrators of the attack had tried to escape to the country and that they had contacts from the "Ukrainian side" to cross the border. Kyiv has denied any role in the attack, which Vladimir Putin also blamed on "international terrorism".

"We are with you, like the whole country"

The crowd left flowers at Crocus City Hall, where the gunmen stormed during a concert by the rock band Picnic. In the southwestern city of Voronezh, people laid flowers and lit candles at a monument to children who died in bombing during World War II, in solidarity with those who perished in the attack near Moscow. "We are with you, like the whole country", declared the governor of Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, on Telegram.

This is the deadliest attack on Russian territory since the Beslan school siege in 2004, when Islamist militants took over hostage more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children.