Guards patrolling a prison colony in northern Russia have caught a cat that was being used to smuggle mobile phones to inmates.

As the cat was climbing a fence into the labour camp in Komi on Friday night (local time), the guards noticed it had a bulky package taped to its back.

The package contained two mobile phones, batteries and phone chargers.

The prison posted a photograph on its website of the black-and-white cat held up by the scruff of its neck by a guard with the bulky package still stuck to its fur.

"They have foiled various attempts to smuggle banned objects into Prison Colony Number One before, but in the case of the cat, the prison colony is at a loss: nothing like this has happened in the prison's history," the regional prison service said.

In a similar incident in Brazil in January, a cat was caught inside a jail with blades, drill bits and a mobile phone taped to its body.

ABC/AFP