Staffing levels at an English open prison which saw just two officers and four support staff in charge of 500 inmates on the night of an “unprecedented” riot will be reviewed, British prisons minister Crispin Blunt said today.

An open prison in the UK was the subject of an inquiry tonight after balaclava-clad inmates went on the rampage and torched buildings in a New Year’s Day mutiny sparked by an attempted clampdown on contraband alcohol.

A riot at an open prison in England was brought under control after a New Year’s Day rampage by inmates thought to have been sparked by attempts to breathalyse them to check for contraband alcohol.

A riot at an English prison was triggered after some prisoners refused to be breathalysed for alcohol, according to Mark Freeman, deputy general secretary of the UK Prison Officers Association.

Specialist officers had to be called in today after about 40 prisoners began a riot and set alight an open prison in Britain, according to the Ministry of Justice.