‘Zubr’ freed the nurses

The newspaper “Kommersant”, No. 95 (4636), 28.05.2011

Yesterday, the Federal Penitentiary Service special forces unit ‘Zubr’ conducted an operation to free hostages captured by prisoners at the high-security correctional colony No. 4 in the village of Seredka, Pskov region. Two convicts sentenced for serious crimes, including murder, armed themselves with a scalpel and scissors and took six female employees of the institution’s medical unit, where they were receiving treatment, hostage. One of the hostages was released during negotiations. For the freedom of the rest—and negotiations lasted about eight hours—the prisoners demanded 40,000 roubles, vodka, and a car in which they intended to drive to freedom. The operation was carried out at the moment when the criminals, using the hostages as shields, were getting into the car provided to them. The captors were distracted by explosions of stun grenades, and then fired upon with automatic weapons. One of the criminals received a serious injury, and the other a relatively light one. One of the nurses also suffered, as the criminals had managed to inflict cuts upon her.