Murder investigation under way after inmate stabbed in British prison

A MAN has been stabbed to death in a cold-blooded murder at a Surrey prison chapel.

BRUTAL: An inmate was stabbed in the stomach

The victim, aged in his 20s, was brutally knifed in the stomach during the lunch break at Coldingley Prison, Bisley, Surrey.

An air ambulance, police and paramedics rushed to the jail after the alarm was raised.

Warders said that frantic efforts were made to resuscitate the victim before he was prounounced dead almost an hour later.

It is understood that another prisoner has been locked in a solitary cell and a full scale murder investigation is underway.

JAIL: Coldingley Prison was opened in 1991

The Prison Service has named the dead man as 25-year-old Madala Washington.

A spokesman said: "HMP Coldingley prisoner Madala Washington died in prison on Friday April 1.

"As with all deaths in custody there will be an investigation by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman."

FATAL: The stabbing occurred at Surrey's Coldingley Prison

Police in Surrey later confirmed that they had been called to a murder inside the jail.

A guard, who asked not to be named, said: "The guy was killed in the prison's chapel."

Police cars were still parked outside the prison more than three hours after the incident.

The category C training prison holds 500 inmates.

STABBING: Police cars remained parked outside the jail three hours after the incident

Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, said: "We do not comment on ongoing police investigation, but generally there has been an increase in violence, and indeed homicides, in our prisons.

"We believe that is due to the lack of prison officers - some 7,000 have been made redundant since 2010.

"Our prisons are a more violent place than they have been. It is tragic that someone has lost their life."

It comes on the same day as a Brit drug mule was caught smuggling £1.5m of coke freed from jail in Peru.