Shocking footage of inmates at a prison running riot after breaking out of their cells using cutlery has been released on YouTube.

Nineteen prisoners broke out of their cells at Winchester Prison in Hampshire, using utensils and cutlery from the kitchen to scrape holes in the walls of their cells.

Before an anti-riot squad restored order on Tuesday night the inmates, some wearing masks, smashed things, threw bricks around, donned prison officers clothing and one can be seen waving an officer's baton. Another let off a fire hose and sprayed it around the wing.

The video was shot by inmates inside their cell and they can be heard laughing at the behaviour of other prisoners.

Cody Lachey, a former prisoner now prison reform campaigner, who released the footage on his YouTube channel, criticised Winchester which date from the mid-19th century.

He said the incident stemmed from the poor conditions. "Prisoners are housed in certain Victorian prisons than are rife with cockroaches, mice and even rats and the 'Criminal justice system' is as broken as the prisoners entering it and leaving it, those Victorian prisons are more reminiscent of Dickensian Britain than than 21st century Britain.

"The Victorian prisons are dilapidated, decrepit and not fit for animals never mind prisoners that the Ministry of Justice are trying to 'rehabilitate', Prisoners will seek to go after weakness, whether that be in another prisoner, a prison officer, lapses in security or, in this case, the walls housing them.

"Prisons should be places of decency with humane conditions with purposeful activity based solely on 'rehabilitation' but the Mo is obsessed with opening new prisons and creating more prison places when the prisons we have are crumbling and falling down."

Winchester was placed in special measures in early 2018 because of concerns at staffing and the conditions.

Since the incident some 150 inmates have been transferred to other jails to allow surveyors to inspect and assess the damage.