Russia mourns victims of concert shooting

24/3/2024 16:52

        Russia lowered flags to half-mast on Sunday for a day of mourning after scores of people were gunned down with automatic weapons at a rock concert outside Moscow in the deadliest attack inside Russia for two decades.
        
        President Vladimir Putin declared a national day of mourning after pledging to track down and punish all those behind the attack, which left 133 people dead, including three children, and more than 150 were injured.
        
        "I express my deep, sincere condolences to all those who lost their loved ones," Putin said in an address to the nation on Saturday, his first public comments on the attack. "The whole country and our entire people are grieving with you."
        
        The Islamic State claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, but Putin has not publicly mentioned the militant group in connection with the attackers, who he said had been trying to escape to Ukraine, He asserted that some on "the Ukrainian side" had prepared to spirit them across the border.