Russian special forces broke into a detention center in the southern city of Rostov today and killed several people who were holding two guards hostage, Reuters reports.
The agency reports, citing Russian media, that the prisoners who held the guards hostage are linked to the Islamic State.
Intense automatic fire can be heard in recordings posted on Russian Telegram channels.
"Criminals have been eliminated," said a statement from the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service quoted by the Interfax news agency.
"The employees who were held hostage have been released. They are unharmed," the prison service said.
Reuters previously reported that six detainees, some of whom are linked to the Islamic State, had taken guards hostage at a remand prison in the southern Russian region of Rostov and that they had demanded free passage in negotiations with authorities.
The men, some of whom have already been convicted of terrorist offenses, broke the bars on the window of their cell and entered the guard room where they took at least two prison officers hostage, the Baza channel on Telegram reported.
State media said some of the prisoners were accused of terrorist crimes, including links to the Islamic State militant group, which claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a concert hall in Moscow in March.
The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service announced earlier that two employees of the remand prison in Rostov were taken hostage.
"The institution is working as usual, the situation is under control," the service announced on the messaging application Telegram.
It added that law enforcement agencies were on the scene.
Pictures from the scene show that the roads around the detention center are closed, reports Reuters.
Bonus video:
