Moscow Attack Death Toll Rises to 133, Victims Include Former Beauty Queen
The death toll in a terrorist attack at a Russian concert hall has risen to 133, Russian authorities said on Saturday. Moscow’s health ministry published an initial list of 41 identified victims on the same day, giving a clearer picture of the lives lost during the attack.
Most of those identified were adults in their forties and fifties. They had come to Crocus City Hall in Moscow to see Picnic, a Russian rock band formed in 1978.
Among the victims was Ekaterina Novoselova, 42, a former pageant queen who won a beauty contest in her hometown in 2001, a local news outlet reported. Novoselova moved to Moscow years later to work as a lawyer.
Alexander Baklemyshev, 51, was a dedicated Picnic fan who had traveled 1,000 miles from his home to attend the band’s show in Moscow, his son told a local station. Baklemyshev sent a video from inside the concert hall just before the shots rang out—the last message his son received from him.
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“There was no last conversation,” Baklemyshev’s son told Russian media. “All that was left is the video, and nothing more.”
Pavel Okishev, 34, was at the concert as an early birthday present, having traveled from Kirov about 500 miles away, a Russian newspaper reported. He and his wife, Irina Okisheva, were both killed in the attack.
Another victim, Roman Sokolov, died in the concert hall attack on his 47th birthday.
The attack, which was claimed by an Afghanistan-based affiliate group of ISIS, began Friday evening when a group of gunmen opened fire in the crowded venue, which seats up to 6,000 people. Russian president Vladimir Putin called a day of national mourning on Sunday and said authorities had detained four assailants.
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