Four prison guards dead after Russian inmates claiming ISIS affiliation take staff hostage

Update: Around 4:40 local time, residents of the town where the prison is located began reporting the sound of gunfire in the area. According to Mash, security forces have begun storming the facility. State media reported that residents are having problems accessing the Internet. Before the storm began, Baza posted a photo that appeared to show one of the hostage-takers wearing an improved explosive device.

Update 2: The Russian National Guard reported that special forces agents killed four hostage-takers and that the hostages have been freed. According to the FSIN, three prison staff members were killed during the attack and one more died later in the hospital. A total of eight employees were taken hostage.

Inmates at the IK-19 prison in Russia’s Volgograd region took multiple employees of the facility hostage on Friday, according to Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN). “During a disciplinary commission meeting at IK-19, convicts took employees of the correctional institution hostage. Efforts to free the hostages are currently underway,” the agency said in a statement.

The FSIN reported that there have been injuries as a result of the situation but did not provide details. Russian state news agency TASS, citing emergency services, reported that one person has been killed. According to the Telegram channel Shot, the victim was an on-duty prison employee who tried to resist the attackers. The channel Mash later reported that at least three people have been killed, while the state news outlet Interfax said that three people have been put in intensive care.

The total number of hostages is currently unclear. According to Shot, the prison’s chief, Andrey Devyatov, and his deputy were taken hostage. The Telegram channel Baza reported that Devyatov managed to escape but was injured and is now in intensive care, while Shot said the attackers “handed him over.”

According to preliminary reports, there are three or four attackers involved. Baza and Mash have reported they may be linked to ISIS, as was the case with inmates who took hostages at a Rostov-on-Don prison in June. The channels reported that the captors have demanded $2 million and a helicopter.

Riot police officers and an imam from the Volgograd region are at the scene. According to Baza, the imam is currently waiting for permission from security officials to start negotiations with the hostage-takers.

Vladimir Putin has been briefed on the situation by the head of the FSIN. According to Russian state media, the president will also hear from the interior minister, the head of the Russian National Guard, and other top security officials. The Russian Defense Ministry’s official TV network Zvezda published video from Putin at an emergency meeting with the Security Council.

The attackers forced one of the hostages to record a video message asking Putin to fulfill their demands. A video making the rounds on Telegram shows a man with a bloody face in a prison uniform asking for the hostage-takers’ demands to be granted. An offscreen voice orders him to direct his request specifically to Vladimir Putin. Another video spreading on Telegram shows the attackers posing with an ISIS flag.

In another video, the hostage-takers say they’re acting in revenge for the terrorists who carried out the deadly attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall concert venue in March and that they did not ask for $2 million and a helicopter.

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a felony case under the Russian Criminal Code’s articles against “hostage-taking resulting in death” and “disrupting the operations of correctional facilities.” A team from the FSIN’s central office has been dispatched to the prison.