A group of inmates at the Russian prison in Volgograd took prison guards hostage on Friday, The Moscow Times reported, citing the Ria Novosti news agency. According to TASS, the prison services confirmed that one guard had died.
The IK-19 Surovikino prison, where the incident is taking place, is located 120 kilometers from the city of Volgograd.
The riot is believed to have been carried out by at least three inmates. An “operation to free the hostages” is now underway.
The Federal Penitentiary Service confirmed that “there are casualties” and TASS reported that four injured people were taken to hospital.
Also according to TASS, Russian President Vladimir Putin has already been informed about the incident.
“The head of the Federal Penitentiary Service reported to me the situation developing in one of the prisons in the Volgograd region,” the president said at a meeting of the Russian Security Council.
An unauthenticated video broadcast by several Russian media outlets and cited by international agencies shows a room with a blood-stained floor, where four men in uniform can be seen lying down and covered in blood, some apparently lifeless, and at least two other men filmed next to a third individual speaking in Arabic.
The latter individual then claims, in Russian, that they belong to the Islamic State (IS) group. In this 46-second video, one of the men holds a knife in one hand and one of the alleged guards by the throat in the other.
In mid-June, several members of the ‘jihadist’ organization were killed after taking two prison guards hostage in a prison in the Rostov region (southwest), near Volgograd.
Russia has been repeatedly targeted by attacks claimed by the terrorist organization, although its influence in the country remains limited.
In late March, IS claimed responsibility for an attack on Crocus City Hall, a concert hall near Moscow, in which gunmen killed 145 people, the worst attack in Russia in nearly 20 years.
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