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In the Volgograd Region, a group of prisoners has taken hostage FSIN employees in correctional colony No. 19
The first reports of hostage-taking in the high-security penal colony № 19 in Surovikino, Volgograd Region, appeared at about 13:30 Moscow time.
A little later, the Russian Federal Prison Service officially confirmed that the convicts (their number was not specified) had taken hostages (their number was also not specified) of the correctional colony staff during a meeting of the disciplinary commission. The ministry added that there were injured during the hostage-taking in the colony.
There is no official data on the dead and injured yet, news agencies and Telegram channels are passing different information about it.
Serveral sources say that at least one FSIN officer was killed. Other sources say that three people were killed and at least five injured during the hostage-taking.
TASS, citing doctors, reported that four injured FSIN officers were hospitalised in Surovikinsky Central Regional Hospital. This information was later confirmed by Volgograd Region Governor Andrei Bocharov. According to Anatoly Sebelev, chairman of the Volgograd Region Health Committee, two of them are in a serious condition, while two more are in a moderate condition.
That said, some sources say that two FSIN officers managed to escape the invaders. One of those who managed to escape is the head of IK-19 Andrei Devyatov. He was wounded and is in intensive care.
TASS reports, citing operational services, that there are at least three invaders, all of whom are prisoners.
They have declared their affiliation with the ‘Islamic State’ (an organisation recognised as terrorist and banned in Russia). There is no official confirmation of this information yet.
There is also no official information about the captors’ demands. Sources claim that the hostage-taking prisoners demand a helicopter with $2 million on board.
Security forces have cordoned off IK-19. A sanaviation helicopter arrived to the scene.
According to soures, the mullah of the Volgograd mosque travelled to the colony. A little later, the propaganda channel RT said that the Volgograd region muftiate did not confirm the information that the local mullah went to negotiate with the prisoners who had taken hostages in the colony.
Mufti of the central Spiritual Board of Muslims of Volgograd region told RIA Novosti that it is impossible to negotiate with the hostage-takers in the penal colony near Volgograd: ‘It is not clear why these negotiations with criminals are needed at all? To persuade them with a kind word? To exhort them?’. According to him, the most severe measures should be taken against criminals.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case under articles on hostage-taking resulting in death and disorganisation of the activities of institutions providing isolation from society.
Hostage-taking in a colony in Volgograd region became the second such case this summer.
On 16 June, a similar incident took place in pre-trial detention centre No. 1 in Rostov-on-Don. Then six prisoners, accused of terrorist offences, armed with knives, took hostage two employees of SIZO-1 in Rostov-on-Don. They demanded weapons and transport to escape, but during the operation of law enforcers, all but one of the captors were killed. A video clip with a video message of the invaders, in which they called themselves supporters of the ‘Islamic State’, was circulated in Telegram channels at the time.
According to Russian news agencies, the prisoners in the Rostov Pre-Trial Prison demanded a car and the possibility to leave the country.
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