00:00 Well, it's been less than 24 hours, of course, since this shocking attack in Moscow.
00:04 We have some updates on what exactly has been going on in the last few hours.
00:09 Authorities have confirmed they've detained 11 people in connection with this attack.
00:14 Four of those are reported to have been the attackers inside Kruger's City Hall.
00:19 There was a total report, say, of five attackers.
00:22 That potentially leaves one more unaccounted for.
00:25 But we understand that four have been taken in for questioning.
00:28 They were stopped in a car on the western border of Russia in the Bryansk region, which
00:34 borders Ukraine.
00:35 And in the last few minutes, security forces, media reports in Russia citing security forces
00:41 have said they intended to cross the Russian border into Ukraine, and they allegedly had
00:47 ties to Ukrainian intelligence.
00:49 That's coming from Russian media reports, as I say, citing the secret services.
00:54 Now, a lot of reports circulated in the aftermath of this attack saying that ISIS, or branch
01:01 of ISIS rather, had claimed responsibility for this attack.
01:04 The Russian media were very quick to downplay those claims, but they appear to have been
01:09 backed up by Western officials at this point.
01:13 So it remains to be seen exactly what the motives of these attackers were, if they were
01:18 affiliated indeed with this terrorist organization, and of course, what nationality they are.
01:24 As well, what passports they held, because initially media reports say they found Tajik
01:29 passports in the car.
01:32 Tajik officials, the Tajik embassy was very quick to deny that.
01:36 They said we've received no official requests from Russian authorities.
01:39 Let's stick to official information.
01:41 So obviously, as that investigation carries on, it's very important to sift through potentially
01:47 unreliable information that's coming through and what is coming through from the official
01:52 authorities.
01:53 Yeah, and the official authorities, but we have yet to hear from Russia's president.
01:57 Meanwhile, Daniel, there are a lot of images and messages circulating on social media.
02:04 This is obviously something the city, the country is talking about.
02:07 What are some of the reactions that you've been following?
02:11 Well, Moscow is a city very much grieving this morning.
02:16 People are very much in shock on the billboards that you usually see advertising products
02:22 or films all over the city.
02:23 They're all gone, the digital billboards.
02:25 All you can see is one word.
02:27 We are grieving a candle and the date of yesterday's attack.
02:33 Medics, hospitals have said hundreds of people have turned up this morning to donate blood
02:39 for the victims of this attack.
02:41 They say there is enough blood to go around, but people still keep coming and coming.
02:47 There's a real sense of grief, as I say, in the city this morning.
02:51 The Moscow mayor, Sergei Sabanin, has canceled public gatherings, has canceled sports events.
02:56 The Russian national football team has canceled their friendly match with Paraguay.
03:01 There's an increased security presence on the streets.
03:05 That was particularly strong yesterday on the roads as well.
03:07 I was stopped by road police as I made my way home for extra checks.
03:11 There's increased security presence at transport hubs because of the risk in these sorts of
03:15 cases of potential copycat follow up attacks.
03:18 So very much a heavy mood in Moscow this morning and an increased security presence to reassure
03:26 people here in the city.
03:28 Paris had the Bataclan concert hall attacks back in 2015.
03:32 In the aftermath of that, the witnesses, the survivors, spoke about a lot of the trauma
03:37 they experienced during that attack.
03:39 The people who made it outside of this, who survived this attack in Moscow, what have
03:44 they been saying about what they witnessed?
03:47 Well, very many parallels with the tragic events in the Bataclan, as you rightly say.
03:53 The witnesses have been giving some really harrowing testimony of what happened there
03:59 in this attack.
04:00 These shooters went in intent to kill as many people as possible.
04:04 They were using automatic weapons.
04:06 They set the theater on fire.
04:09 People reported breaking windows to try to get out.
04:12 They reported running around the theater, hiding wherever they could in changing rooms,
04:17 in toilets, in baby changing rooms.
04:20 Tragically, many people, according to authorities, actually died from smoke inhalation when the
04:25 fire spread.
04:27 As they tried to hide from these killers, people said they were trying to smash windows,
04:32 trying to escape to the subway.
04:35 These people were being shot at point-blank range in cold blood in entire groups with
04:40 automatic weapons.
04:42 The phone signal was very poor in Moscow yesterday.
04:44 The Wi-Fi signal was very poor, so people couldn't contact loved ones.
04:47 People couldn't understand what was going on.
04:49 They didn't know if their families and friends were alive or not.
04:54 This was very much a shocking event for Moscow and for Russia as well.
04:59 And no doubt we'll be hearing more of those very harrowing testimonies as the investigation
05:05 continues.
05:06 Yeah.
05:07 And there are certainly going to be some questions about intelligence failures.
05:09 I think the White House confirmed that it had warned Russia earlier this month about
05:12 IS possibly targeting large gatherings in Moscow.
05:16 Daniel, how rare is an attack like this in a country whose security and intelligence
05:20 apparatuses have so much power?
05:24 Well, Russia has suffered its fair share of terror in its history.
05:30 It suffered some of the most high-profile attacks, the Beslan school siege, the Nordost
05:35 theater siege, the jet being brought down over the Sinai, the bombings in the St. Petersburg
05:41 metro.
05:43 Those mainly, though, were nigh on 20 years ago.
05:47 In recent times, Russia has pretty successfully tackled its terrorism problem, despite, of
05:53 course, its involvement in Syria and its fight against terrorist groups there.
05:58 So this is an unusual, unusually violent terrorist attack for Russia.
06:04 Having said that, in the lead up to this attack, to this particular attack, there were several
06:08 incidents reported in March.
06:11 Security services say they liquidated half a dozen ISIS-affiliated terrorists in the
06:17 Caucasus in early March.
06:19 They say they prevented an attack on a synagogue.
06:22 They say they detained a terrorist commander.
06:25 These were all events in the lead up to this attack.
06:28 And as you say, authorities in Russia, Moscow authorities, officials have pointed to those
06:33 warnings by Western embassies, the U.S. embassy, the U.K. embassy, for people to avoid large
06:39 public gatherings.
06:40 And they've questioned as to why these embassies allegedly did not share that information.
06:46 Now, Western officials have said, we did share that information, and media reports have since
06:50 said here in Russia that indeed some information was shared.
06:53 It just was not specific.
06:55 So there's a lot of uncertainty about exactly what was shared, to what extent that was shared,
07:00 how many details there were.
07:01 And how, as you say, this was allowed to happen at a time when the country's embroiled in
07:05 conflict, at a time when security is on a high level, there's a lot of security everywhere,
07:11 how exactly this could have happened.
07:12 And no doubt more information will come out in the coming hours and days about that.
07:17 Daniel, thank you very much.
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