A prisoner started a fire in his cell yesterday which burnt through bedding and a mattress.

Firefighters put on breathing apparatus and used a hose reel to fight the blaze at High Down prison near Banstead.

Three fire engines and an aerial ladder platform fire engine were called to the prison at 4.13pm.

Watch commander Russell Giles, from Epsom fire station, described the fire as deliberate and said smoking materials are usually used to start cell fires.

He said: "The inmate set fire to some bedding by the look of it. The fire was confined to the cell, bedding and mattress."

He said that prison guards cannot take smoking materials off inmates, adding: "It’s their human right."

A smoking ban, introduced in England in 2007, stopped prisoners from smoking in all indoor prison areas apart from in their cells.