MANCHESTER ARENA BOMB plotter Hashem Abedi has attacked three prison guards with hot cooking oil, the UK’s Prison Officers’ Association (POA) has said.

The Prison Service confirmed three prison officers were treated in hospital after an attack by a prisoner at HMP Frankland, County Durham, in England.

Abedi threw hot cooking oil over the officers on Saturday before producing “home-made weapons” and stabbing them, said the POA, a trade union covering prison staff.

The officers sustained life-threatening injuries including burns, scalds and stab wounds in the “unprovoked” and “vicious” attack, it added.

One female officer was discharged by 4pm on Saturday.

Abedi was convicted of assisting with the Manchester terror plot, in which his suicide bomber brother Salman Abedi killed 22 people by detonating a homemade rucksack-bomb in a crowd of concert-goers.

In 2022, Abedi was one of three inmates convicted of assaulting a prison officer, Paul Edwards, in 2020 at Belmarsh Prison. Abedi was also convicted of assaulting a second officer in the same incident.

Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood, post on X, formerly Twitter: “I am appalled by the attack of three brave officers at HMP Frankland today. My thoughts are with them and their families.

“The police are now investigating. I will be pushing for the strongest possible punishment.

“Violence against our staff will never be tolerated.”

Abedi was jailed for life in August 2020 and is currently serving at the category A HMP Frankland.

Category A is the highest level of security, housing some of the country’s most serious criminals.

Frankland also has a separation centre.

These centres, introduced in 2017, aim to control prisoners with extreme views, for example by preventing them from disrupting the prison estate, supporting acts of terrorism or radicalising other inmates.

Following the attack, POA’s national chairman, Mark Fairhurst, said: “Separation centres hold the most dangerous terrorist offenders who simply do not wish to alter their ideology, and as this event confirms, are determined to inflict violence on those who hold them securely.

“We must now review the freedoms we allow separation centre prisoners have.

“I am of the opinion that allowing access to cooking facilities and items that can threaten the lives of staff should be removed immediately.

“These prisoners need only receive their basic entitlements and we should concentrate on control and containment instead of attempting to appease them. Things have to change.”

A 2022 inspection found nine men in total were housed in separation centres, then operating in Frankland and HMP Woodhill, Buckinghamshire.

It said the Frankland unit was on a narrow corridor with a small “room for association” and an area for prisoners to cook and prepare food.

There were no facilities on the wing and staff could arrange for prisoners to visit the main prison gym or to be taken off the unit for education, the report said.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Three prison officers have been treated in hospital after an attack by a prisoner at HMP Frankland.

“Police are now investigating so it would be inappropriate to comment further.

“Violence in prison will not be tolerated, and we will always push for the strongest punishment for attacks on our hardworking staff.”

Includes reporting by Emma Hickey.