At least one person has been killed in Russia after prisoners at a jail claiming to be Islamic State militants knifed guards and took hostages.
Russian website Mash showed a video of at least two attackers, with one declaring they were “mujahideen” and saying they had taken over the prison.
Four uniformed officials could be seen in pools of blood – three of them motionless. Another was sitting upright in a doorway with a knife held to his neck.
The attackers have reportedly killed at least one prison official.
Security forces then stormed the prison to free the hostages, Russian TV news channels say.
The Baza news channel said all the hostages had been rescued, without giving a number, Reuters reported.
It’s thought at least one hostage-taker was killed in the rescue operation.
It happened on Friday at a penal colony, believed to be IK-19 in Surovikino, southwestern Russia.
“During a session of a disciplinary commission, convicts took staff of the penal institution as hostages,” said a prison service statement.
Russian news sites had published the names of four alleged attackers and said they were from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, but there’s been no official confirmation.
President Putin was later recorded at a security council meeting asking leaders for an assessment of the situation.
The prison involved can hold more than 1,200 male inmates and is classed as a “harsh regime” penal colony.
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This year has seen a number of Islamist militant attacks in Russia.
The worst was in March when more than 140 people died after gunmen attacked a concert hall near Moscow and set the building on fire.
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Special forces also shot dead six people involved in an IS-linked prison uprising in June in the southern Rostov region.
At least 20 were killed in the same month in shootings in Dagestan, a predominately Muslim region also located in southern Russia.
