MOSCOW — Family and friends of those still missing after an attack that killed over 130 people at a suburban Moscow concert hall awaited news of their loved ones as Russia observed a day of national mourning on Sunday.
Events at cultural institutions were canceled, flags were lowered to half-staff, and television entertainment and advertising were suspended, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. A steady flow of people contributed to a makeshift memorial near the burned concert hall, forming a large mound of flowers.
“People came to a concert, some came to relax with their families, and any one of us could have been in that situation. And I want to express my condolences to all the families affected here and I want to pay tribute to these people,” Andrey Kondakov, one of the mourners who visited the memorial, told The Associated Press.
“It is a tragedy that has affected our entire country,” kindergarten employee Marina Korshunova said. “It just doesn’t even make sense that small children were affected by this event.” Three children were among the dead.
The attack, which has been claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State group, is the deadliest on Russian soil in years.
As rescuers continue to search the damaged building and the death toll rises as more bodies are found, some families still don’t know if relatives who went to the event targeted by gunmen on Friday are alive. Moscow’s Department of Health said Sunday it has begun identifying the bodies of those killed via DNA testing, which will need at least two weeks.
Igor Pogadaev was desperately seeking any details of his wife’s whereabouts after she went to the concert and stopped responding to his messages.
He hasn’t seen a message from Yana Pogadaeva since she sent her husband two photos from the Crocus City Hall music venue.
After Pogadaev saw the reports of gunmen opening fire on concertgoers, he rushed to the site, but couldn’t find her in the numerous ambulances or among the hundreds of people who had made their way out of the venue.
“I went around, searched, I asked everyone, I showed photographs. No one saw anything, no one could say anything,” Pogadaev told the AP in a video message.
He watched flames bursting out of the building as he made frantic calls to a hotline for relatives of the victims, but received no information.
As the death toll mounted on Saturday, Pogodaev scoured hospitals in the Russian capital and the Moscow region, looking for information on newly admitted patients.
But his wife wasn’t among the 154 reported injured, nor on the list of 50 victims authorities have already identified, he said.
Refusing to believe that his wife could be one of the 137 people who died in the attack, Pogadaev still hasn’t gone home.
“I couldn’t be alone anymore, it’s very difficult, so I drove to my friend’s,” he said. “Now at least I’ll be with someone.”
The Moscow Region’s Emergency Situations Ministry posted a video Sunday showing equipment dismantling the damaged music venue to give rescuers access.
At the same time, President Vladimir Putin seems to be attempting to connect Ukraine to the attack, something its government strongly denies.
On Sunday, he was recorded lighting candles to honor the victims at Novo-Ogaryovo, a residence for Russia’s president just outside Moscow.
According to Putin, Russian authorities arrested four suspected attackers on Saturday, including 11 people taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the attack. He stated that they were apprehended while trying to escape to Ukraine.
Although no court hearing has been officially announced, heavy police presence was observed around Moscow’s Basmanny District Court on Sunday. Police attempted to drive journalists away from the court.
Video released by Russia’s Investigative Committee showed the suspected attackers being dragged while blindfolded into the organization’s headquarters in Moscow.
Putin referred to the attack as “a bloody, barbaric terrorist act” and stated that Russian authorities arrested the four suspects as they were attempting to flee to Ukraine through a “window” prepared for them on the Ukrainian side of the border.
Russian media aired videos that appeared to show the detention and questioning of the suspects, including one who stated to the cameras that he was approached by an unidentified assistant to an Islamic preacher via a messaging app and paid to participate in the raid.
Kyiv strongly rejected any involvement, and the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate claimed responsibility.
Putin did not mention IS in his speech to the nation, and Kyiv accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely connecting Ukraine to the assault to generate enthusiasm for Russia’s involvement in Ukraine, which recently entered its third year.
U.S. intelligence officials confirmed the IS affiliate’s claim.
“ISIS bears full responsibility for this attack. There was absolutely no Ukrainian involvement,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson stated in a declaration.
According to Watson, the U.S. shared information with Russia in early March about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow and issued a public warning to Americans in Russia.
The attack was a significant embarrassment for the Russian leader and occurred just days after he secured his hold on the country for another six years in a vote that followed the most severe crackdown on dissent since the Soviet era.
Some individuals on Russian social media questioned how authorities, who have consistently suppressed any opposition activities and silenced independent media, did not prevent the attack despite the U.S. warnings.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated in a release that the U.S. condemned the attack and stated that the Islamic State group is a “common terrorist enemy that must be defeated everywhere.”
IS, which fought against Russia during its intervention in the Syrian civil war, has long targeted Russia. In a statement posted by the group’s Aamaq news agency, the IS Afghanistan affiliate claimed that it had attacked a large gathering of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk.
The group issued a new statement on Aamaq on Saturday, stating that the attack was carried out by four men who utilized automatic rifles, a pistol, knives, and firebombs. It stated that the attackers shot at the crowd and used knives to kill some concertgoers, presenting the raid as part of the Islamic State group’s ongoing conflict with countries that it claims are opposing Islam.
In October 2015, IS set off a bomb that brought down a Russian plane over Sinai, causing the death of all 224 people on board, many of whom were Russian vacationers returning from Egypt.
The group, which primarily operates in Syria and Iraq but also in Afghanistan and Africa, has also taken responsibility for several attacks in Russia’s unstable Caucasus and other areas in previous years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
