Moscow attack Ex-colleagues of suspect tell of shock at his arrest

Former colleagues and clients at the small barber shop where Muhammadsobir Fayzov once worked were stunned when they saw the news.

- Pjotr Sauer

They knew the 19-year-old as a promising, hard-working stylist, and saw no signs that he and three other Tajik gunmen would be accused of committing last Friday's bloodbath at a concert city hall in Moscow.

"He was regarded as a good barber... I noticed nothing strange about him," said Yamina Safiyeva, the owner of the barber shop outside Moscow where Fayzov worked three months before the attack, which killed 139 people.

On Sunday, Fayzov was brought into a courtroom on a gurney, with a catheter attached and one eye injured or missing. He appeared to fade in and out of consciousness.

After Russia's deadliest terrorist attack in more than two decades, limited details have emerged of the background of the alleged shooters.

Russian authorities have continued to try to tie others to the attack, with the FSB head Alexander Bortnikov saying yesterday he believed Ukraine, the US and Britain were involved.

All four are Tajik citizens, apparently radicalised and recruited by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). They were reportedly living in and around Moscow, some of the estimated 1.5 million Tajiks who left the poverty of their home towns and villages in search of a better future in Russia.

The eldest defendant is Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32, who may have been living in Russia illegally. He was shown sitting in a glass cage in the courtroom with a black eye and bruised face.