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This is the disturbing moment suspected Islamic State supporters took prison guards hostage in southern Russia today.
Prisoners being held on ‘terrorist’ charges’ launched a rebellion in the SIZO-1 pre-trial detention centre in the city of Rostov-on-Don, near the border with Ukraine.
Footage circulating on Telegram shows several inmates armed with knives holding men hostage.
The victims – dressed in prison service uniforms – appear to have sustained bloody wounds and bruises to their limbs.
One of the IS kidnappers brandishing a knife in a video shared on Telegram (Picture: 112/e2w)
A video shows their captors unveiling a black and white flag adorned with Arabic lettering.
One of the kidnappers declares: ‘We are in Rostov Central, where our brothers are imprisoned, given jail terms…
‘The Islamic State Mujahideen have taken over the detention centre, captured the infidels.’
It is understood that they broke the window bars in their cells before storming the duty station.
Two prison guards were taken captive in the city of Rostov (Picture: 112/e2w)
The incident happened in the early hours of Sunday morning, with footage of the developments circulating on social media in the hours after.
Dozens of soldiers from Russia’s special forces were deployed to rescue the two officers.
Intense automatic gunfire could be heard in footage published on Telegram in the moments following.
‘The criminals were eliminated,’ Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service confirmed in a statement quoted by the Interfax news agency.
State media said that some of the men were accused of affiliation with the Islamic State militant group, which claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall in March.
The freed officers were identified as Viktor Konchakov and Lieutenant Alexander Bodma, who is head of the operational department of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Rostov region.
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