Death toll in Moscow concert hall attack rises to 140 after another victim dies in hospital

MOSCOW (AP) — The death toll from last week's Moscow concert hall attack rose to 140 on Wednesday after another victim died in a hospital, Russian officials said.

That person was one of five still hospitalised in “extremely grave condition,” and the doctors “did everything they could” to save them, Russia's Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said.

A total of 80 people injured in the attack remain hospitalised, the official added, and 205 others have sought outpatient medical assistance.

The Friday night massacre in Crocus City Hall, a sprawling shopping and entertainment venue on the northwestern outskirts of Moscow, was the deadliest terrorist attack on the Russian soil in nearly 20 years. At least four gunmen toting automatic rifles shot at thousands of concertgoers and set the venue on fire.

An affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the violence, while US intelligence said it had information confirming the group was responsible. French President Emmanuel Macron said France also has intelligence pointing to “an IS entity” as responsible for the attack.

Russia's Federal Security Service, or the FSB, said it had arrested 11 people the day after the attack, including four suspected gunmen. The four men, identified as Tajik nationals, appeared in a Moscow court on Sunday on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.

Russian officials, however, have insisted Ukraine and the West had a role, claims Kyiv vehemently denies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of trying to drum up fervor as his forces fight in Ukraine.

FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov also alleged that Western spy agencies could have been involved. “We believe that radical Islamists prepared the action, while Western special services assisted it and Ukrainian special services had a direct part in it,” Bortnikov said, without giving details.

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