Inmates reportedly inspired by soldier's killing attack UK prison guards

Two prison officers have been injured in an attack at a British maximum security jail, officials said yesterday, with media reports claiming the assailants were Muslim inmates inspired by the brutal murder of a soldier.

The prison officers' union said one of the guards had been held hostage for nearly four hours at Full Sutton prison near York in northern England on Sunday, until riot officers managed to free him.

Officials did not confirm reports that the three attackers were Muslim prisoners inspired by the murder last week of a British soldier who was hacked to death in a London street by suspected Islamic extremists.

The Mirror newspaper reported that the male guard was kidnapped and beaten by three inmates after they became enraged by a call from the prison's imam to pray for soldier Lee Rigby, who was murdered in broad daylight last Wednesday.

"An officer was taken hostage at Full Sutton prison on Sunday evening," a spokesman for the prison officers' union, the POA, said.

"A team of riot officers was deployed and managed to diffuse the situation after four hours."

The Sun said the officer had been stabbed during the attack and that the second injured guard was a woman officer who was hurt trying to stop him being dragged away.