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A transgender inmate living as a woman at a men’s prison nearly died after slashing herself with a razor.

Staff spotted her injuries through a spyhole in a cell door at HMP Littlehey, Cambs.

A nurse fought to stem a “huge” loss of blood at the scene.

There were suggestions the prisoner had been refused a transfer to a women’s jail.

A source told the Sunday People : “She must have been desperate. It was ­horrible.”

The case will re-ignite ­concerns over the treatment of inmates who change gender.

Read more:Nine prisoners in same jail to have sex change operations on the NHS

The source said: “She’d had hormone therapy and ­developed breasts but she had not had surgery to transform her ­genitals.”

Two transgender inmates serving time in all-male prisons killed themselves last year.

The Ministry of Justice ­confirmed a Littlehey inmate was treated in hospital and had ­returned to the prison.