Four dead in hostage-taking in Russian prison

Four prison employees were killed after inmates at a Russian penal colony staged an uprising and took hostages, federal authorities said.

Special forces stormed the IK-19 Surovikino facility in the southwestern Volgograd region after knife-wielding prisoners posing as Islamic State (IS) fighters claimed to have taken control of the sprawling complex.

Authorities said the special forces operation resulted in some hostages being freed and all attackers being “neutralised”, but later confirmed that four prison staff had died.

An unverified image posted on social media appears to show an inmate standing over a bleeding prison guard with a knife during the riot.

The Russian National Guard Rosgvardia said that four attackers were shot dead by snipers during the rescue operation.

The National Guard filmed the arrival of heavily armed troops at the prison in video footage posted on the messaging app Telegram.

The attack began during a meeting of the disciplinary commission, the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement. During the attack, the attackers beat guards and injured several prison employees.

The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said eight prison employees and four inmates had been taken hostage. Some reports in Russian media suggested that the warden and his deputy were among the hostages.

“The perpetrators inflicted stab wounds of varying severity on four employees, three of whom died. Another four who resisted were taken to hospital, one of whom died in hospital.”

In dramatic cellphone footage released by the attackers, they identified themselves as IS fighters. The men said their motive was a desire to avenge the persecution of Muslims.

The video also showed prison officers lying in pools of blood, while other clips showed the attackers marching through the prison yard.

The governor of the Volgograd region, Andrei Bocharov, had previously stated that the hostage-taking posed “no danger to the civilian population”.

President Vladimir Putin was filmed attending a virtual meeting with security chiefs where he said he was briefed on the current situation.

The hostage-taking in Volgograd is the second such incident this summer, after six prisoners who had pledged allegiance to the terrorist group Islamic State captured two guards at a facility in the neighboring Rostov region.

Five of the prisoners were killed and a sixth was sentenced to 20 years in prison after the attack.

The public prosecutor's office said it had initiated proceedings for hostage-taking.

IK-19 Surovikino is a maximum security penal colony. It is estimated that about 1,200 prisoners are housed there.