Knife-wielding inmates at a penal colony in southern Russia’s Volgograd region briefly took several prison staff hostage on Friday before being “neutralized” by police snipers, authorities said.
“Snipers from the Russian National Guard's special forces in the Volgograd region neutralized four inmates with precise shots after they took prison staff hostage. All hostages have been safely freed,” law enforcement officials were quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.
Earlier, a spokesperson for Russia’s prison service told state media that the inmate uprising took place at the IK-19 Surovikino penal colony, located around 120 kilometers (74.5 miles) west of the region’s capital city Volgograd.
“Several inmates seized staff at a meeting of the colony’s disciplinary committee,” the prison service was quoted as saying by TASS. Emergency responders had told the news agency that three prisoners were involved in the hostage-taking and at least one prison employee was killed.
Photos shared by the pro-Kremlin Telegram news outlet Mash showed prison inmates with knives standing above bloodied guards. In unverified videos shared on Telegram, the alleged attackers said they were affiliated with the Islamic State militant group and taking revenge for the Crocus City Hall terror attack in March.
Volgograd region Governor Andrei Bocharov said earlier that four prison employees were hospitalized but insisted that the uprising at IK-19, which houses more than 1,200 inmates, posed no threat to public safety.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, launched a criminal case in connection with Friday’s hostage-taking, a crime punishable by a maximum of life in prison.
President Vladimir Putin said earlier on Friday that he had been informed by the head of the prison service about the hostage situation in Volgograd, the second to have taken place in a southern Russian prison this summer.
In June, six prisoners who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State captured two guards at a detention center in the neighboring Rostov region. Five prisoners were killed and one was later sentenced to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges.
The same Telegram channels that circulated graphic photos allegedly taken at IK-19 claimed that the prisoners who took hostages on Friday may also be members of the Islamic State terrorist group.
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