Inmates at Elba Prison Hold 22, Demand Copter

One of the inmates holding 22 hostages at a prison on the island of Elba said Wednesday he and his accomplices have “nothing to lose” and predicted a massacre unless authorities provide the inmates with a helicopter and an experienced pilot.

“Our patience is limited,” warned the inmates’ leader, 40-year-old Mario Tuti. “Don’t seek to pull too hard on the cord, or it will snap,” Tuti, a convicted right-wing terrorist, said in a telephone conversation with the Italian news agency ANSA.

Little progress was reported in negotiations between authorities and the six men who took over the prison administration building Tuesday. The inmates, armed with pistols and homemade knives and claiming to have explosives, did not harm anyone in the takeover.

“The situation is stalled,” said an unidentified judicial official involved in the negotiations, according to ANSA.

Prime Minister Giovanni Goria convened an urgent meeting with advisers Wednesday to examine possible solutions to the siege.

The inmates held 17 guards and five civilian prison employees in the building’s infirmary. Four other original hostages were released Tuesday.

Later Wednesday, police reported that another four hostages, whose presence had not been previously mentioned by authorities, were released. “There are still 22 hostages,” a police statement said after the release.

One of the six rebellious inmates fired a pistol shot in the air Wednesday evening, police said. The news agency AGI said the inmate fired because he saw a moving shadow but apologized afterward and was scolded by other inmates who shouted “stay calm.”

Tuti’s role in the rebellion came as a surprise to prison officials. Only a week ago, Tuti wrote to friends, praising the pizza and other food at the prison and adding, “Here the situation is good, and it seems more like a resort than a prison,” the news agency reported.

Elba is a popular resort island of 30,000 people located about six miles off Tuscany on Italy’s west-central coast. From May, 1814, to February, 1815, the island was a sovereign principality under the exiled Napoleon I, who lived in a villa 90 miles from the prison.