Three employees and four attackers killed in prison hostage-taking

A heavy human toll. At least three prison employees and their four attackers were killed Friday, August 23 during a hostage-taking in a prison in the Russian region of Volgograd, the authorities announced. This hostage-taking lasting several hours, the second in a Russian prison in just over two months, seems, like the previous one, to bear the mark of the jihadist group Islamic State. Videos not authenticated by AFP tend to support this theory.

According to the Federal Prison Service (FSIN), the four attackers took eight prison employees and four other inmates hostage in the “penal colony No. 19”. “The criminals inflicted stab wounds of varying severity on four employees”the FSIN said in a late afternoon message on Telegram.

The final death toll among prison staff is not yet clear. Information provided by various authorities has alternately reported three or four deaths and a varying number of injuries. According to the FSIN, the four attackers were “liquidated” while the four hostage detainees were injured.

A little earlier, the Russian National Guard had announced that it had “neutralized” the hostage takers thanks to his “special units snipers”The prison concerned is an establishment “on a strict diet”that is, with strict conditions of detention. It is located in the town of Surovikino, about 120 kilometers west of Volgograd, the regional capital.