AN investigation is under way after specially-trained prison officers yesterday rushed a barricaded room to end a 19-hour siege and free a colleague who had been held by two youths at Castington Young Offenders' Institute, at Acklington, Northumberland, since Thursday evening.

A Northumbria Police spokesman said the two unnamed youths barricaded themselves and the officer, who was apparently rescued unharmed, in an office on one wing of the 300-cell centre. A Prison Service spokesman said the governor ordered the action after concern grew for the kidnapped officer.