“As the rubble was being removed in the concert hall of the Crocus City Hall, the number of people killed in the terrorist attack has risen to 133. The search operation is underway,” the statement said, according to TASS.
Several attackers opened fire in the crowded concert hall of the city hall on the western edge of Moscow on Friday and triggered an unknown number of explosives.
The ISIS terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The investigative committee earlier said some people 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.
The shooting took place where a Soviet-era rock band was due to perform.
Russia’s foreign ministry described the rampage as a “bloody terrorist attack.”
“The entire world community is obliged to condemn this monstrous crime,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “All efforts are being thrown at saving people.”
Long lines formed in Moscow on Saturday for people to donate blood. Health officials said more than 120 people were wounded.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the attack as a “huge tragedy.”
The attack comes just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin was reelected to another six-year term in an election condemned by many as rigged.
Putin has not yet made a public statement about the attack.
In 2004, about 30 Chechen militants seized a school in Beslan in southern Russia and took hundreds of hostages. The siege ended in a bloodbath two days later and more than 330 people, about half of them children, were killed.
‘Hard to Watch’
Video posted on social media showed huge plumes of black smoke rising over the building. Some reports at the time claimed that gunmen had barricaded themselves in the building.Russian authorities said security had been tightened at Moscow’s airports and railway stations, while the Moscow mayor cancelled all mass gatherings scheduled for the weekend.
White House national security adviser John Kirby told reporters Friday that he wasn’t able to speak about all the details but that the images were “horrible, and just hard to watch.”
“Our thoughts are going to be with the victims of this terrible, terrible shooting attack,” he said. “There are some moms and dads and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters who haven’t gotten the news yet. This is going to be a tough day.”
The attack followed a statement issued earlier this month by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that urged the Americans to avoid crowded places in the Russian capital in view of “imminent” plans by extremists to target large gatherings in Moscow, including concerts. The warning was repeated by several other Western embassies.
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said on March 22 that the U.S. government had information about a planned attack in Moscow, prompting the State Department advisory to Americans.
The U.S. government shared the information with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding “duty to warn” policy, she said.
The attack took place as crowds filled the venue to see the Russian rock band Picnic. Crocus City Hall can accommodate more than 6,000 people. The venue had been sold out.
The United States, European and Arab powers, and many former Soviet republics expressed shock and sent their condolences. The United Nations Security Council condemned what it called a “heinous and cowardly terrorist attack.”
