First photos of hostage-takers in Russian prison

Images circulating online on Friday appear to show prisoners being held hostage in a prison in Russia’s Volgograd province, in an incident that also left others dead and injured.

According to media reports, the suspects in the attack on prison staff were four prisoners in their twenties, including Ramzuddin Toshev and Timur Huseynov, born in Uzbekistan, and Rustam Jan Norouzi and Nazerjan Toshov, born in Tajikistan.

They were sentenced in 2019, 2022 and 2023 to prison terms of 6 to 8 years for drug trafficking and intentional assault and battery.

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In a circulating video recording, the criminals declared their loyalty to the terrorist organization ISIS.

They claimed that the hostage-taking was a retaliation against the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on the Crocus party center in the Moscow suburbs in March, which left hundreds of civilians dead and injured.

The hostage-takers also claimed that Muslims were being persecuted in Russia.

The attackers denied media reports about their demand for $2 million and a helicopter, saying their demand was to replace one injured hostage with another.

Earlier today, inmates of prison No. 19 in Volgograd province attacked prison staff and took several hostages among them, with initial reports of two deaths and several injuries.

Authorities said they were preparing an operation to free the hostages.