MOSCOW, Aug 4, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The trial opens in Moscow on Monday of 19 people accused of involvement in an attack on a Moscow concert hall last year that killed 149 people.

Armed men stormed the Crocus City Hall music venue on March 22 last year, opening fire and then setting the building alight in what was one of the deadliest attacks in Russia's history.

Hundreds of people were injured. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility.

The four suspected attackers, all from Tajikistan -- an ex-Soviet republic in Central Asia -- and another 15 people accused of being accomplices were expected to go on trial.

The first three hearings were to take place on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, according to a Moscow court website.

The attack shocked Russia, which was battling Ukraine in a military offensive that it started on February 24, 2022.

Despite the IS claim of responsibility, Russia implicated Ukraine in the attack, an allegation that Kyiv called baseless and absurd.

Nearly half of the victims were killed by smoke and carbon monoxide inhalation from the fire that broke out, not from gunfire, the state TASS news agency reported on Sunday, citing case materials.

The attack sparked a wave of xenophobia against Central Asian migrants in Russia.