A prisoner has been found stabbed to death at HMP Wormwood Scrubs in west London, police have said.

Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said the inmate was found in another prisoner's cell and had suffered multiple stab wounds.

He has not yet been named.

Brunt said police were at the jail, adding: "A forensic operation will be going on, the studying of CCTV inside Wormwood Scrubs."

A police spokesman said officers were called to the facility at 3.19pm on Wednesday and that the prisoner had died at the scene.


He said the prisoner's family had been told and formal identification would soon take place.

"A post-mortem examination will be held in due course.

"No arrests have been made. Enquiries are ongoing."

Image: A report said there were on average 40-50 violent incidents at the jail. File pic

Wormwood Scrubs is a Category B prison with about 1,200 male inmates.

The news comes after a report by the prison's Independent Monitoring Board described it as "a dangerous environment for staff and prisoners alike, with multiple violent incidents on most days".

The report, published last November, said that, despite "serious efforts", the prison remained a "dangerous place", with 40-50 violent incidents in a typical month.

At the time the report was written, the prison was "consistently" short of staff, it added.

It also said that Carillion, the organisation contracted for maintenance services to the prison, was "not able to adequately maintain the fabric of the prison".

The report added: "Managers and officers are expected to work - and prisoners are expected to live - in unacceptable conditions, which are not only indecent but also represent a threat to the security of the prison."

Carillion, a business employing thousands of people in the UK and overseas, collapsed earlier this month.