Four officials died during a hostage situation in a Russian prison

Four prison workers were killed after dozens of inmates staged a protest in a remote Russian resort and took hostages, authorities said.

Special forces raided the IK-19 Surovikino facility in southwestern Volgograd region after knife-wielding inmates, who call themselves Islamic State (IS) terrorists, claimed control of the facility.

Authorities said a special forces operation freed the hostages and “neutralized” all the attackers, but later confirmed that four prison staff had died.

An unverified photo posted on social media appeared to show a knife-wielding prisoner standing over a bloodied guard during the uprising.

Russia’s Rosgvardia National Guard said snipers shot dead four attackers in a rescue operation.

Heavily armed soldiers were captured arriving at the prison in photos posted on the Telegram messaging app by the National Guard.

The attack began at a meeting of the disciplinary commission, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said in a statement. The attackers are said to have cut down the guards and injured a number of prison staff.

FSIN said eight prison staff and four prisoners were kidnapped. Some Russian media reports indicated that the prison director and deputy director were among those seized.

“The thugs stabbed four workers, three of them died. The other four refused to be admitted to the hospital, one of them died in the hospital.”

The FSIN denied that the attackers were in control of the entire prison, saying: “The criminals kidnapped people and took one room in the colony.”

Russian media named the attackers as Ramzidin Toshev, 28, Rustamchon Navruzi, 23, Nazirchon Toshov, 28, and Temur Khusinov, 29. All were from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

In stunning mobile phone footage released by the attackers, they portrayed themselves as IS fighters. The men said they were motivated by a desire to avenge the persecution of Muslims.

The video also showed prison officials lying in pools of blood, while in separate clips the attackers roamed the prison grounds.

The governor of Volgograd region, Andrei Bocharov, said earlier that the kidnapping was “not a danger to the people”.

President Vladimir Putin was filmed taking part in a virtual meeting with security chiefs, where the Kremlin said he had been briefed on the situation.

The capture of Volgograd is the second such incident this summer, after that six prisoners taking the oath of allegiance from the Islamic State group kidnapped two security guards at a center in the neighboring region of Rostov.

Five prisoners were executed and a sixth was sentenced to 20 years in prison following the attack.

Prosecutors said they have opened a case related to the kidnapping.

IK-19 Surovikino is a high penal colony. It is believed to be holding around 1,200 prisoners.