THE North East Counter Terrorism Unit has taken over control of the investigation into an attack on a prison officer at a maximum security jail near York.

The officer was attacked by three inmates at HMP Full Sutton, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) confirmed this morning.

The warden was reportedly stabbed during a four-hour stand-off on Sunday.

An MoJ spokesman said: “An incident involving three prisoners took place at HMP Full Sutton on 26 May from 4.25pm and was successfully resolved at 8.40pm after staff intervened.

“A police investigation is ongoing.”

Newspaper reports today claimed the attack was masterminded by the Muslim fanatic Parviz Khan, who is serving life a sentence for plotting to behead a British soldier, but a source said he was not being held at Full Sutton.

The Prison Officers Association is planning to send a national representative to Full Sutton today to look into the incident, saying it would not comment further until more facts emerged but it had received conflicting reports about how many officers were involved and the extent of their injuries.

According to reports, the trio snatched the warder from E-wing and held him hostage before stabbing him during a stand-off with guards.

The terrified victim, who is in his 30s, was locked in a cleaning room where he was also apparently beaten with mop handles and told he was going to die.

The prison's National Tactical Response Group were called and eventually managed to free him and he was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

It has been claimed the three prisoners became enraged following a prison imam’s call for Muslim inmates to pray for soldier Lee Rigby, who was stabbed to death by extremists last week.