Russian inmates armed with knives take prison staff hostage and kill a guard | Islamic State

A group of inmates took hostages and killed at least one prison staff member in a prison in the southern Russian region of Volgograd on Friday, the Russian prison service said.

“During a meeting of a disciplinary commission, convicts took prison staff hostage,” the prison service said in a statement. “Measures are currently being taken to free the hostages. There are casualties.”

A graphic video is circulating on several Russian Telegram channels in which at least three hostage-takers armed with knives stand over apparently injured or dead prison guards who are lying in a pool of blood.

One of the hostage-takers says in the clip that the group is linked to Islamic State (IS). According to Shot, a Telegram channel with close links to Russia's intelligence services, the hostage-takers demanded a helicopter and $2 million (£1.7 million).

Russian media reported that the country's security services were preparing to storm the building.

Russia has recently been the victim of a series of Islamist terrorist attacks, raising questions about whether the country's extensive security agencies were distracted by the invasion of Ukraine and the internal crackdown on anti-war dissidents.

In March, the Afghan branch of IS, known as Islamic State (Khorasan Province), claimed responsibility for a mass shooting at a Moscow concert hall. The attack left 139 people dead and was the worst terrorist attack in years.

And in June, gunmen opened fire on a synagogue, two Orthodox churches and a police station in two towns in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, killing at least 15 police officers and a priest.

The latest hostage-taking incident is also likely to raise questions about security measures in Russian prisons. It follows a similar incident in the summer in which Russian special forces freed two guards and killed six men with links to IS they had taken hostage in a prison camp in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.