Human rights activists' office in Chechnya attacked by masked men

Women leave an apartment building, where a human rights group office is situated, in Grozny, Russia, Wednesday, June 3, 2015. Masked men bashed their way into the office he Committee against Torture in the regional Chechen capital of Grozny on Wednesday, smashing furniture and sending the occupants fleeing through the windows, their colleagues said. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev) (The Associated Press)

Children look into a damaged car, outside an apartment building, where a human rights group office is situated, in Grozny, Russia, Wednesday, June 3, 2015. Masked men bashed their way into the office he Committee against Torture in the regional Chechen capital of Grozny on Wednesday, smashing furniture and sending the occupants fleeing through the windows, their colleagues said. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev) (The Associated Press)

MOSCOW – Human rights activists in Chechnya say that masked men bashed their way into the group's office, sending the occupants fleeing through the windows.

The Committee against Torture wrote on its Twitter account on Wednesday that several young men, wearing surgical masks and armed with crowbars, attacked the group's office in the capital of Grozny. The employees escaped through the windows, the group said.

The Committee against Torture is a leading and one of the few remaining human rights groups operating in Chechnya, governed by Kremlin-backed Ramzan Kadyrov.

The group has aroused Kadyrov's ire before when it openly blamed him for persecuting the families of those who joined anti-government militants.