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A prominent Russian investigative reporter has received a brain injury and multiple fractures when she and a lawyer accompanying her were brutally beaten by unidentified assailants in the Russian province of Chechnya, AP reported on Wednesday, citing her newspaper.

Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov were attacked Tuesday soon after they arrived in Chechnya to attend the trial of the mother of two Chechen dissidents. Just outside the airport, their vehicle was blocked by three cars and a dozen unidentified masked attackers, who beat them with clubs and put guns to their heads. Milashina and Nemova were evacuated to Moscow for medical treatment later in the day.

Novaya Gazeta said that a medical examination of Milashina showed that she has sustained a brain injury and 14 fractures on her hands along with multiple other injuries. It released pictures of Milashina, showing both her hands bandaged, her face injured and her back covered by bruises from the beating.

Milashina said the assailants threatened to cut her fingers if she refused to give a password to unlock her phone and then beat her on her fingers with a plastic tube. “It was very painful. It felt like a burn,” she said in a video released by Russian rights group Team Against Torture.

The attackers also shaved her head clean and doused green antiseptic on her, Milashina said. She noted that the attackers grabbed their equipment, but didn’t touch cash and other valuables.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has described the attack as “a very serious assault that warrants energetic measures” from law enforcement agencies and noted that President Vladimir Putin was informed about it.