The defendants who took hostages in a pre-trial detention center in Russia's Rostov Region on Sunday were eliminated, and the center's employees were not injured, the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service said on Sunday.
"In the course of a special operation to free hostages in the pre-trial detention center-1 of the Main Directorate of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service for the Rostov Region, the criminals were eliminated, and the hostages were released and not harmed," the penitentiary service said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, two employees of the pre-trial center in Rostov Region were held hostage by six to seven defendants, who were armed with fire axes and rubber truncheons, a source told Sputnik. They demanded transportation and the possibility to leave the detention center.