Russia has announced a National Day of Mourning following the tragic Moscow concert hall attack.
On Sunday, March 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin shared the declaration in honor of the victims of a terrorist attack that has since recorded 147 deaths. According to the Washington Times, U.S. officials tried to warn Putin about it before the attack happened on a concert hall outside Moscow.
The World Mourns After the Moscow Concert Hall Attack
The National Day of Mourning has led the flags across Russia to be lowered at half-mast as the public honored the victims through the makeshift memorial outside the Crocus City Hall concert theater where the terrorist attack happened on Friday, March 22, before a scheduled rock band's performance.
Prior to the attack, the president told the Federal Security Service that their priority was to support the country's war against Ukraine.
"I would also like to recall the recent provocative statements by a number of official Western structures regarding potential terrorist attacks in Russia," said President Putin. "All these actions resemble outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society."
ISIS officials confirmed they were responsible for the assault, which has killed over a hundred of people and injured others.
Four gunmen suspected of launching the attack have reportedly been apprehended alongside seven others who reportedly got involved in it.
"It is already clear that we are confronted not simply with a carefully and cynically planned terrorist attack, but a premeditated and organized mass murder of peaceful, defenseless people," President Putin added, noting that it also targeted innocent civilians. "Like the Nazis who once carried out massacres in the occupied territories, they planned to stage a demonstrative execution, a bloody act of intimidation."
According to BBC, around 6,000 attendees were at the event - and the number of killed individuals has been rising over the past few days. The first official list of fatalities revealed that at least three children were among those who died.
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Two of the Suspects Appear in Court
Two of the perpetrators of the attack, which has since been dubbed the worst terror attack on Russia in two decades, appeared in court as they faced charges of a "terror attack committed by a group of individuals resulting in a person's death." It followed the 2004 Beslan school siege, which left 334 people - 186 of which were children - dead.
TASS news agency (via The Guardian) said Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda and Dalerdzhon Barotovich Mirzoyev were both remanded in custody amid the ongoing probe.
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