Inmates held as siege ends

Specially-trained prison officers rushed a barricaded room at a young offenders' institute to end a 19-hour hostage crisis this afternoon. A prison officer being held by two inmates at the Northumberland centre was freed, apparently unharmed. He was taken hostage as inmates at Castington Young Offenders' Institute at Acklington, near Morpeth, finished an association period on Thursday evening.

A Prison Service statement yesterday said that the officer received cuts and bruising and was badly shaken. Both youths have been arrested. A police investigation is under way and the Prison Service will launch its own inquiry.