The French government on Sunday raised its terror alert warning to its highest level following the shootings in Moscow. The decision came after Prime Minister Gabriel Attal met with senior security officials and President Emmanuel Macron.
Attal said in a post on X that the decision, which comes months before Paris hosts the Olympic Games, was taken “in light of the Islamic State’s claiming responsibility for the (Moscow) attack and the threats weighing on our country”. France’s terror alert system has three levels, and the highest level is activated in the wake of an attack in France or abroad or when a threat of one is considered to be imminent.
À la suite de l’attentat de Moscou, un Conseil de Défense et de Sécurité nationale a été réuni ce soir à l’Elysée par le Président de la République.Compte tenu de la revendication de l’attentat par l’état islamique et des menaces qui pèsent sur notre pays, nous avons décidé de…
— Gabriel Attal (@GabrielAttal) March 24, 2024
Deadliest attack
French government’s decision came as Russia lowered flags to half-mast for a day of mourning and charged four men it accused of gunning down scores of people at a concert outside Moscow on Friday night in the deadliest attack inside Russia for two decades. President Vladimir Putin declared Sunday a national day of mourning after pledging to punish all those behind the attack, in which 137 people were killed, including three children, and 182 were injured.
Over 100 people remained in hospital, some of them in a serious condition. Video footage showed a sombre-looking Putin lighting a candle at a church at his residence outside Moscow on Sunday evening to honour those who died.
Earlier on Sunday, people laid flowers at Crocus City Hall, the 6,200-seat concert hall outside Moscow where four armed men burst in just before Soviet-era rock group Picnic was to perform its hit “Afraid of Nothing”. The men fired their automatic weapons in short bursts at civilians who fell screaming.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Putin has not publicly mentioned the Islamist militant group in connection with the attackers, who he said had been trying to escape to Ukraine. He said that some on “the Ukrainian side” had been prepared to spirit the gunmen across the border. Ukraine has denied any role in the attack.
(With agency inputs)
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