French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed that the group responsible for the recent shooting in Moscow also attempted to execute several actions in France. During a visit to French Guiana on Monday, Macron informed reporters that this group tried to carry out multiple acts on French soil.
In response to the Moscow incident, the French government escalated the terrorism warning to its highest level on Sunday. France joined the United States in acknowledging intelligence information pointing to ISIS’s involvement in an attack on a concert hall outside Moscow, resulting in 137 fatalities, while Russia continued to attribute the responsibility to Ukraine.
Macron revealed to the media, “The information we have, as well as that available to our main partners, indeed indicates that an entity affiliated with ISIS instigated this attack.” He referred specifically to the ISIS branch in Afghanistan.
The assault on Crocus concert hall marks the bloodiest attack within Russia in two decades. On Friday evening, four men stormed the venue and unleashed a hail of bullets on attendees before the rock band “Picnic,” an ensemble from the Soviet era, performed their hit “Afraid of Nothing.”
The attack left 137 people dead and 182 injured, heightening security concerns and international attention towards potential ISIS activities beyond the Middle Eastern regions.