Soham murderer Ian Huntley is back in prison after an attack by a fellow prisoner left him needing hospital treatment.

The 36-year-old was attacked on Sunday in Frankland Prison in County Durham, where he is serving two life sentences for murdering schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

He was taken to an undisclosed outside hospital, where his condition was not believed to be life-threatening, the Ministry of Justice said.

Prison officials launched an investigation into what happened.

It has been reported that Huntley's throat was slashed with a makeshift knife, and the child killer was found by prison staff lying in a pool of blood.

He was convicted of murdering Holly and Jessica, who were both 10, in December 2003 after they vanished from their homes in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002. Huntley was given two life terms after being convicted of the girls' murders.