The Russian Emergency Situies Ministry has raised the number of people injured in Friday’s attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Moscow to 152, according to the latest tally reported this morning by the state news agency TASS.
The death toll remains at 133, as confirmed by Russia’s Investigative Committee, which noted that search operations were ongoing and that the figure could rise during the ongoing debris clearance efforts.
Among the injured, the latest Saturday update indicated that 105 remained in hospital while another 32 were receiving outpatient care. In addition, at least 40 people had to undergo emergency surgery during the night from Friday to Sunday.
The investigating agency explained in a prior statement released via Telegram that most of the fatalities were caused either by gunshot wounds or by asphyxiation during the building fire.
The Friday attack in Moscow has already been described as the worst terrorist strike in modern Russia, surpassing the 2002 Dubrovka theatre seizure by Chechen militants, which ended with the deaths of 132 hostages after a forceful intervention by Russian security forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared publicly on Saturday for the first time since the attack to confirm the detention of four material perpetrators of the massacre, labeling the act as a “terrorist, bloody and barbaric” crime. He subsequently declared Sunday, March 24, a national day of mourning.
While the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, the president did not name the organization in his remarks. Instead, he conveyed, as previously relayed by the Federal Security Service, that the suspects were intercepted as they headed toward the Ukrainian border, where, according to the president, they were allegedly being prepared for entry into Ukrainian territory.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected these accusations on the same Saturday, denying any Kyiv involvement and criticizing Moscow for blaming others instead of addressing concerns within Russia itself.
One of the detained individuals believed to be involved in the assault reportedly told investigators that each participant had been promised roughly half a million rubles for the act. According to a recording of the interrogation aired by a major Russian broadcaster, about half of that sum was transferred to a bank card.