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STORY: :: Russian National Guard

Russian officials said on Friday that security services shot dead four inmates who had taken hostages at a penal colony in the Volgograd region.

In videos posted online they described themselves as Islamic State militants.

Four prison staff were fatally stabbed in the siege, while others were taken to hospital.

A total of eight prison employees and four convicts had been held hostage, the federal prisons service said.

In one video, victims were seen lying in pools of blood, one of them with his throat slashed.

Another showed the attackers pacing about in a prison yard where one of their hostages was slumped in a sitting position, his face covered in blood.

It was not clear how the men had managed to acquire knives or the mobile phones used to film themselves and post videos online.

Russia has seen a recent upsurge in Islamist militant attacks that is raising questions about security.

:: Russian National Guard

:: June 16, 2024

In June, six inmates who had taken hostages during an Islamic State-linked prison uprising in the Rostov region were shot dead.

:: March 24, 2024

And In March, Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in which gunmen raided the Crocus City concert hall near Moscow, killing more than 140 people.