Inmates at a prison in Russia’s southern Volgograd region have attacked staff with knives and taken hostages, Telegram news channel Baza reported Friday.
Video footage of the incident, which took place at a penal colony in the town of Surovikino, showed prisoners holding knives, while multiple prison guards appeared lifeless. Baza said that three people had died during the attack, and several were wounded, while two others had managed to escape. The person filming the attack claimed to represent Islamic State.
The operation to storm the building and end the siege is complete, with Telegram channel Mash saying that all the hostage-takers were killed, while Baza said one had been killed and two wounded. Both channels said the assault lasted half an hour, with no security forces injured and all hostages rescued.
The alleged attackers shown in one of the videos posted on Telegram. Screenshot from a video
The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) has confirmed that one employee was killed, while Baza said the prison director Andrey Devyatov had been taken to intensive care.
FSIN said measures to free the hostages were already underway. Telegram news channel SHOT said that the facility held a total of 1,230 prisoners.
At least three prisoners are known to have organised the attack, according to state-owned news agency TASS. The hostage-takers have demanded $2 million and a helicopter, North Caucasus news outlet Sapa Kavkaz said, while the attack took place during a meeting of the prison’s disciplinary commission, according to state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.
“There are two or three dead, three wounded and several others who are still being held hostage. All available doctors are in attendance. In short, it’s chaos,” a source from the local FSIN told Novaya Gazeta Europe.
He added that while the high-security prison housed inmates from the “new territories”, as he referred to the areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia, Ukrainians did not form the majority of prisoners. “This is not a Ukrainian penal colony. It is a regular high-security facility,” he said.
Telegram channel VChK-OGPU has said the attack was organised by Rustamchon Navruzi and Nazirchon Toshov, originally from Tajikistan, and Ramzidin Toshev and Temur Khusinov, originally from Uzbekistan. Khusinov was serving a sentence for grievous bodily harm, while the others were serving sentences for drug offences.
Fresh footage has shown a bloodied FSIN officer asking Vladimir Putin to meet the demands of his captors, who said they had carried out the massacre for the “glory of Allah”. Putin said during an emergency Security Council session on Friday that he had been informed of the incident at the penal colony.
Locals in the town of Surovikino have heard shooting, Telegram channel Ostorozhno Novosti has said, quoting local chat rooms. People were also reporting problems with internet access, according to RIA Novosti.
Security forces have begun storming the penal colony, with roads blocked and a fleet of ambulances on hand at the scene, Telegram channel Mash has said.
In a similar incident on 16 June, detainees at a pretrial detention centre in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don were able to escape their cells, temporarily seize control of the facility and take two prison guards hostage. Special forces stormed the building, killing three of the hostage-takers immediately, while two others were injured and died before the emergency services arrived.
