British prisoners were forced to break windows to escape from the chapel at a young offenders' institute near Barnard Castle, after six inmates barricaded themselves inside the building.

The "hot-headed" prisoners caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage before teams of specially trained officers diffused the situation by disorientating them with loud 'banger-style' pyrotechnics.

Durham Police and the Home Office have confirmed that they are now investigating the incident at Deerbolt Young Offenders' Institute, which disrupted the prison for over seven hours.

The disturbance began at around 9.30am on Sunday when 29 prisoners attended their usual Sunday church service in the prison's chapel.

Six inmates, all believed to be from the Manchester area, became disruptive and started damaging church furniture and throwing chairs.

The remaining 23 prisoners immediately asked if they could leave the chapel, which is routinely sealed off for the duration of the service.

With help from prison officers they were able to break windows on the ground floor so that they could be returned to their cells.

"They were shouting 'we want out of here' so they were assisted by staff," said Deerbolt's deputy governor John Fawcett.

The rest of the prison was cordoned off immediately.

The six perpetrators proceeded to cause considerable damage to the chapel until they were removed at around 4.45pm by one of Deerbolt's Tornado Teams, a group made up of officers, specially trained to deal with this kind of situation.

All six prisoners were arrested within two minutes of intervention, and have been questioned by police. Forensic evidence has been collected from the scene.