Two serving prisoners have been handed life sentences for trying to murder a prison officer in an Islamist terrorist attack behind bars.

Brusthom Ziamani, 25, is five years into a 19-year sentence for a 2014 terror plot to behead a soldier inspired by the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby.

He and fellow Muslim convert Baz Hockton, 26, who was radicalised in jail, attacked prison officer Neil Trundle at maximum security HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire on January 9.

The victim was left covered in blood after he was stabbed and hit by the pair armed with makeshift bladed weapons and wearing fake suicide belts as they shouted: “Allahu Akbar.”

Nurse Jayle Cowles and prison officer Georgina Ibbotson were also hurt as they tried to intervene.

Ziamani admitted assaulting the two women and he and Hockton were both handed life sentences on Thursday after they were found guilty of attempted murder by an Old Bailey jury.

The terror attack is believed to be the first of its kind inside a UK jail, although a homemade IRA bomb was exploded inside Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast in 1991.

Mrs Justice May said Ziamani must serve a minimum 21 years, while Hockton will serve at least 23 years before he is eligible for parole.

She said: “It is quite plain to me that the defendants must have been planning this terrorist operation for some time, preparing fake suicide belts and multiple weapons for the purpose.

“It is no accident the January 9 attack came just weeks after the London Bridge attack in November 2019, when Usman Khan, himself recently a prisoner at HMP Whitemoor, attacked members of the public shouting, ‘Allahu Akbar’, wearing a fake suicide belt, causing him to be shot at the scene.