Inmates at a prison in southern Russia’s Volgograd region have seized control of the facility and taken hostages, with multiple prison staff members injured, state media reported Friday, citing Russia’s prison service.
Prison authorities told the RIA Novosti news agency 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.
An unverified video shared by news channels on the Telegram message app purported to show inmates at the penal colony standing above bloodied prison guards.
“Several inmates seized staff at a meeting of the colony’s disciplinary committee,” the TASS news agency quoted the prison service as saying without specifying the number of hostages or hostage-takers.
Emergency services told the news agency that three prisoners were involved in the hostage-taking and at least one prison employee was killed.
The IK-19 maximum-security penal colony in the town of Surovikino houses over 1,200 prisoners.
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 later in the day 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.
This is a developing story.
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