A 6am start the next day for the rest of the news team resulted in five pages of coverage yesterday, updated for later editions and an extra 2,500 copies added to the print run.

Reporter Ben Rooth and photographer Richard Addison, who took the picture of the inmate looking through a broken window which made up the front page, were at the scene shortly after police were themselves alerted.

As well as reporting what went on there was also background from Matthew Bayes and other reporters working on analysis for today's paper throughout the day.

Deputy editor Richard Bowyer said: "The jail has been in the news because Jeffrey Archer was there until a couple of weeks ago. Our news team arrived there to hear smashing glass, shouts and rioting behind the 20ft wall.

"Richard did a great job to get what is a potentially award-winning image from his vantage point outside.

"We're looking now at how this could have happened in the first place and what the repercussions might be for the new jail extension, which was due to be opened shortly."