Russia flew its flags at half-mast today for a day of mourning after dozens of people were killed by automatic weapons at a rock concert near Moscow on Friday in the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades, Reuters reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a national day of mourning after vowing to find and punish all those behind the attack, which killed 133 people, including three children, and injured more than 150.
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"I express my deep, sincere condolences to all those who lost their loved ones," Putin said in an address on Saturday, his first public comments on the attack.
"The whole country and our whole people are grieving with you," he said.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, but Putin did not publicly mention the militant group in connection with the attackers, who he said were trying to flee to Ukraine, claiming that some on the "Ukrainian side" had prepared to take them across borders.
Ukraine has repeatedly denied any role in the attack, which Putin also blamed on "international terrorism".
People laid flowers at Crocus City Hall, a 6.200-seat concert hall outside Moscow, where four armed men stormed Friday just before the Soviet-era rock group Piknik was scheduled to perform their hit "Afraid of Nothing."
The men fired automatic weapons in short bursts at the terrified civilians who fell screaming.
It was the deadliest attack on Russian territory since the Beslan school siege in 2004, when Islamist militants took more than 1.000 people hostage, including hundreds of children.
Long queues for blood donation were formed in Moscow on Saturday.
In the southwestern city of Voronezh, people laid flowers and lit candles at a monument to children killed there in World War II bombings, in solidarity with those killed in the attack near Moscow.
"We, like the whole country, are with you," Voronezh Oblast Governor Alexander Gusev said on the Telegram messaging app.
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