France raises terror alert to highest 'emergency' level after 137 people killed in Moscow concert hall attack
25 March 2024, 09:03
France has increased its security alert to the highest level after the deadly attack at a Russian concert hall claimed the lives of at least 137 people.
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Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced the decision in a post on X, saying authorities were "taking into account the Islamic State's claim of responsibility for the (Moscow) attack and the threats weighing on our country''.
Mr Attal announced the measure in a post on Twitter."We have decided to raise the Vigipirate state to its highest level: attack emergency," he said, referring to France's security alert system.
The announcement came after President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency security meeting.
The attack was claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State group.
France has repeatedly been hit by deadly Islamic State attacks, including the Bataclan theatre massacre in 2015 in which extremists opened fire on concert-goers and held hostages for hours.
French troops have also fought against Islamic extremists in the Middle East and Africa.
France was already on high security alert ahead of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics this year, which are expected to draw millions of visitors to the country.
Security concerns are high for the the opening ceremony on July 26, which will involve boats riding along the Seine and huge crowds watching from the embankments.
Four men appeared in a Russian court charged over the attack.
Three of the four men have pleaded guilty after they were marched blindfolded into the court covered in bruises. A fourth was left in a wheelchair.
All four men were charged with committing an act of terrorism, which the so-called Islamic State has claimed responsibility for at Crocus City Hall.
Vladimir Putin and Russian officials have claimed Ukraine was involved, however. They have shown no evidence for the claim, which Kyiv said was "absurd".
The men were named as Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni and Muhammadsobir Fayzov.
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Pictures airing on Russian state television showed the three men handcuffed with their eyes tightly covered. They were frogmarched into the building by officials in camouflage.
Footage also shows two of the men with their legs spread, hunched over, with their heads pushed against a wall. Their hands are cuffed behind their backs.
Footage appeared on Telegram - a messaging app popular for news coverage in Russia - purporting to show the brutal arrest of one of the suspects in the Bryansk area. He was fleeing from an escape vehicle, it was claimed.
The footage of the alleged arrest - which appeared on a Kremlin-aligned channel - showed the man marched out of the wooded area. His face is covered in blood and he appears to have a bloody ear, as he tries to speak in Russian.
A separate video - again published by a regime-aligned outlet, this time by Russian state TV editor Margarita Simonyan - showed a man lying on his stomach and his hands tied behind his back.
A man in a camouflage uniform has his boot beneath the alleged suspect's face.
Russian authorities arrested four suspected attackers on Saturday, officials said, as Putin said in a night-time address to the nation that among 11 people were suspected of involvement in the attack.
He has also tried to blame Ukraine for the attack, despite Islamic State taking responsibility. Putin said the attackers were being helped across the border by "the Ukrainian side", but did not provide any evidence.
A US National Security Council spokesperson said: "ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever."
But Kremlin spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response: "If only they could sort out the assassination of their own President Kennedy so quickly.
"But no, for more than 60 years, they have not been able to find out who killed him.
"Or maybe ISIS too? Or will they delay for another 60 years with specifics, playing with any 'constructive uncertainty'?"
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Following the claims, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was grateful for those who call "a spade a spade".
He thanked those who refuse to "let Russia deceive the world through propaganda and blackmail".
The president said Ukraine must win the war because it is the only way to "reliably protect human lives".
Zelensky accused Russia and Putin of bringing about "death and pain, not life, adding: "Ukrainians are bravely defending their homeland and will continue to do so."
The attack was the deadliest on Russian soil in years. Rescuers are still continuing to search the damaged building with some families still unaware if members who went to the event targeted by gunmen on Friday are alive.
The onslaught on the Moscow concert hall on Friday night saw armed men opened fire and set the building ablaze, killing at least 133 people.
This was the latest in a series of bombings and sieges that have unsettled and outraged Russians during Vladimir Putin's nearly quarter-century as either prime minister or president.
Video showed the building on fire, with a huge cloud of smoke rising through the night sky. The street was lit up by the blinking blue lights of dozens of fire engines, ambulances and other emergency vehicles, as fire helicopters buzzed overhead to dump water on the blaze that took hours to contain.
Videos posted by Russian media and on messaging app channels showed men toting assault rifles shooting screaming people at point-blank range. One video showed a man in the auditorium saying the assailants had set it on fire, as gunshots rang out incessantly.
Guards at the concert hall did not have guns, and some could have been killed at the start of the attack, Russian media reported.
