Russia says it has arrested all four gunmen suspected of carrying out a shooting massacre in a concert hall near Moscow, and President Vladimir Putin has pledged to track down and punish those behind the attack.

The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for Friday’s rampage but there were indications that Russia was pursuing a Ukrainian link, despite emphatic denials from Ukrainian officials that they had anything to do with it.

Russia’s state Investigative Committee said 133 people had been killed.

State TV editor Margarita Simonyan, without citing a source, had earlier given a toll of 143.

In a televised address, Putin said 11 people had been detained, including the four gunmen.

“They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” he said.

The FSB security service said the gunmen had contacts in Ukraine and were captured near the border, and being transferred to Moscow.

Neither Putin nor the FSB publicly presented any proof of a link with Ukraine, with which Russia has been waging war for the past 25 months.

Emphatic Ukraine denial

Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told Reuters: “Ukraine was of course not involved in this terror attack.

Ukraine is defending its sovereignty from Russian invaders, liberating its own territory and is fighting with the occupiers’ army and military targets not civilians.”

He said the FSB version that the suspects were arrested en route to Ukraine was “of course another lie from the Russian special services”.

Putin cast the enemy as “international terrorism” and said that he was ready to work with any country that wanted to defeat it.

“All the perpetrators, organisers and those who ordered this crime will be justly and inevitably punished. Whoever they are, whoever is guiding them,” Putin said.

“We will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this strike against Russia, against our people.”

Hell of bullets and flames

Verified footage from Friday’s attack showed camouflage-clad gunmen opening fire with automatic weapons at concert-goers in the Crocus City Hall near the capital.

Video showed people taking their seats, then rushing for the exits as repeated gunfire echoed above screams.

Investigators said some died from gunshot wounds and others in a huge fire that broke out in the complex.

Reports said the gunmen had lit the blaze using petrol from canisters they carried in rucksacks.

People fled in panic.

Baza, a news outlet with good contacts in Russian security and law enforcement, said 28 bodies were found in a toilet and 14 on a staircase.

Alleged gunmen arrested

Russian MP Alexander Khinshtein said the attackers had fled in a Renault vehicle that was spotted by police in Bryansk region, about 340km south-west of Moscow on Friday night.

Khinshtein said a pistol, a magazine for an assault rifle and passports from Tajikistan were found in the car.

TV editor Simonyan published a video showing one of the suspects, a young bearded man, being interrogated aggressively by a roadside, replying in heavily accented Russian to a series of questions.

He said he had flown from Turkey on March 4 and had received instructions from unknown people via Telegram to carry out the attack in exchange for money.

The man was trembling throughout the questioning.

Another man with cuts and bruises to his face was shown being questioned via an interpreter while sitting on a bench with bound hands and feet.

The Kremlin said Putin had held conversations with the leaders of Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in which all sides affirmed their willingness to work together to fight terrorism.

Long lines formed in Moscow on Saturday for people to donate blood.

Health officials said more than 120 people were wounded.

IS – the group that once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria – claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Amaq agency said on Telegram.

IS said its fighters attacked on the outskirts of Moscow, “killing and wounding hundreds and causing great destruction to the place before they withdrew to their bases safely”.

On Saturday it released a photograph of what it said were the four attackers.

“The attack comes within the context of a raging war between the Islamic State and countries fighting Islam,” Amaq added in a statement citing security sources.

The IS group has claimed deadly attacks across the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Europe, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
with DPA

—AAP