As Russia observed a day of national mourning on Sunday for the 137 people confirmed dead in the terror attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on Friday night, at least 10 people known to have been at the venue at the time of the attack remain unaccounted for, Novaya Gazeta Europe has calculated.
On Sunday, Yekaterina Kushner, an assistant to the manager of Piknik, the band that had been due to perform at the venue on Friday night, was confirmed dead in the attack, having not been accounted for previously. Telegram channel 112 reported that Kushner had been identified by her husband.
Rescue workers in the ruins of the Crocus City Hall concert venue, 23 March 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE / RUSSIAN INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE
On Saturday afternoon, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the detention of 11 suspects in connection with the attack. The agency also said that four of the gunmen had also been taken into custody. The Russian Interior Ministry said that all those involved in the terror attack were foreign citizens.
Unverified footage of suspects being tortured by Russian law enforcement officials also appeared online — in one video, a suspect has a part of his ear cut off before being forced to eat it.
Law enforcement cordoned off the Basmanny Court in Moscow on Sunday, where the detained suspects are expected to be charged. Journalists are not being allowed anywhere near the court.
As well as the 11 suspects now in detention, two more of the gunment were reportedly killed, one during the attack itself and one while attempting to evade arrest in Russia’s Bryansk region.
BBC News Russian reported on Saturday that the suspect who was killed by law enforcement officers while apparently resisting arrest in the Bryansk region was a citizen of Tajikistan registered to live in the Moscow region city of Podolsk. Another one of the perpetrators was killed in Crocus City Hall, according to the BBC.
