Two corrections officers at a Russian detention center in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don were freed on June 16 by Russian special forces who stormed the facility after several inmates took the officers hostage.
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) confirmed that the two corrections officers had been released and the inmates who had taken them hostage killed.
"During a special operation to free hostages in pretrial detention center No. 1 of the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Rostov region, the criminals were eliminated," FSIN said on Telegram. "The employees who were held hostage were released and were not injured."
Residents of Rostov-on-Don reported hearing the sounds of gunfire in the area of the detention center around noon local time. The FSIN confirmed soon afterward that riot police had stormed the building.
According to the Baza Telegram channel, one of the hostages was slightly wounded. He was treated at the scene and his life was not in danger, the report said.
Some local news outlets reported that some prisoners had also been killed.
Baza reported that six inmates managed to knock out the bars over the windows of their cells and enter the duty station, where they took the two corrections officers hostage, demanding weapons, a car, and free passage.
Videos distributed on social media showed the hostage-takers armed with knives and sharp objects.
The six had been accused of terrorist activities and some were reported to have links to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group. Among them were natives of Ingushetia and Chechnya who were convicted of terrorism charges in December, according to Kavkaz.Realii, citing preliminary information.
IS has carried out a number of attacks on Russian soil in recent years, including most recently in March when gunmen opened fire on a crowd at a concert hall in suburban Moscow, killing 145 people.
Residents of the Rostov region noted that Governor Vasily Golubev did not comment on reports about the hostage-taking incident while it was ongoing despite a number of central streets having been blocked, and questions from residents about the situation were deleted from Golubev's Telegram channel.
The governor said after the hostages were release that it had been the work of "provocateurs with obvious anti-Russian sentiments and an attempt to stir up an interethnic theme."