Three prison officers have been attacked by the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber.

The Prison Officers Association (POA) said 28-year-old Hashem Abedi – the brother of Salman Abedi – threw hot cooking oil over the guards before stabbing them with homemade weapons.

He was sentenced in 2020 to at least 55 years in prison after being found guilty of 22 counts of murder over the 2017 atrocity.

The three officers were taken to hospital after the attack at category A Frankland prison, in County Durham, shortly before 11am on Saturday.

A female officer is understood to have now been discharged.

The POA said they suffered “life-threatening injuries” including burns, scalds and stab wounds.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said on X: “I am appalled by the attack of three brave officers at HMP Frankland today. My thoughts are with them and their families.

“The police are now investigating. I will be pushing for the strongest possible punishment. Violence against our staff will never be tolerated.”

The POA said the attack happened in a separation centre, a small unit sometimes referred to as a “prison within a prison”, usually used to house dangerous prisoners and those deemed a risk of radicalising other inmates.

The union’s national chair Mark Fairhurst called for a review of the freedoms granted to those prisoners.

“I am of the opinion that allowing access to cooking facilities and items that can threaten the lives of staff should be removed immediately,” he said.

“These prisoners need only receive their basic entitlements and we should concentrate on control and containment instead of attempting to appease them. Things have to change.”

General Secretary Steve Gillan added: “This is a disgraceful and cowardly attack on prison officers at Frankland prison who were carrying out their duties.”

Durham police said: “An investigation is underway following a serious assault which occurred at Frankland prison, Durham today.

“Three victims were taken to hospital to be treated where two remain with serious injuries and a third has been discharged.”

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Hashem Abedi was previously found guilty, along with two other convicted terrorists, of attacking a prison officer at south-east London’s Belmarsh prison in 2020.

The officer was hit with a chair, repeatedly punched and kicked when he was set upon by Hashem Abedi, Parsons Green Tube bomber Ahmed Hassan and Muhammed Saeed, who spoke about carrying out a knife attack in London.

Hashem Abedi was found guilty by a jury of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and plotting to cause an explosion likely to endanger life over the Manchester Arena bombing.

The court heard he helped source, buy, stockpile and transport the components for his brother’s bomb using a number of phones, vehicles and addresses in preparation for the attack.

Twenty-two people were killed when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated an explosive as people were leaving an Ariana Grande concert at the venue.

He died in the attack, while hundreds of others were injured.

Newcastle United’s head coach Eddie Howe has been admitted to hospital after feeling “unwell for a number of days”, his club have said.

In a statement, they confirmed the 47-year-old will miss the team’s next match against Manchester United on Sunday “due to illness” after feeling unwell “for a number of days”.

“The Magpies’ head coach was admitted to hospital late on Friday evening having felt unwell for a number of days,” the statement said.

“Medical staff kept Eddie in hospital overnight for further tests, which are ongoing.

“He is conscious and talking with his family, and is continuing to receive expert medical care.

“Everyone at Newcastle United extends their best wishes to Eddie for a speedy recovery, and further updates will follow in due course.”

The club said assistant Jason Tindall and coach Graeme Jones will lead the side at St James’ Park on Sunday.

Speaking when he stepped in to perform pre-match media duties on Friday, Tindall said: “He’s been really poorly in the last couple of days but we’ve been in daily contact.

“We’ve been speaking three or four times a day so it’s not affected any of the preparations. We’ve still got a couple of days and I’m sure he’ll be fine for the weekend.”

The assistant manager added “its not very often that’s he unable to come to work”, and that “it’s a bit different” not having Howe around the training ground.

Tindall also joked: “He’s probably got a live feed there now, his attention to detail – he’s top, and that’s why he’s one of the best managers that’s out there.”

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Howe, who has been tipped as a future England manager, ended Newcastle’s silverware drought last month, leading them to a first domestic trophy in 70 years after beating Liverpool in the Carabao Cup.

Currently sitting fifth in the Premier League table, the Magpies still have Champions League football next season firmly in their sights.

They have won each of their last four games in all competitions, with league victories over West Ham, Brentford and Leicester either side of their Carabao Cup final success.

Newcastle beat Manchester United 2-0 at Old Trafford in December and will run out eight places and 15 points better off than Ruben Amorim’s men this weekend.

But they have not completed a league double over the Red Devils since the 1930-31 campaign.

When the sun sets on Scunthorpe this Saturday, the town’s steelworks will likely have a new boss – Jonathan Reynolds.

The law that parliament will almost certainly approve this weekend hands the business secretary the powers to direct staff at British Steel, order raw materials and, crucially, keep the blast furnaces at the plant open.

This is not full nationalisation.

But it is an extraordinary step.

The Chinese firm Jingye will – on paper – remain the owner of British Steel.

But the UK state will insert itself into the corporate set-up to legally override the wishes of the multinational company.

A form of martial law invoked and applied to private enterprise.

That will come at a cost to the taxpayer.

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No number has been specified, but there are wages to pay and orders to make at a site estimated to already be losing £700,000 a day.

There is also clear frustration in government at how the Chinese owners have engaged in negotiations around modernising the Scunthorpe site.

“Jingye have not been forthright throughout this process”, said the business secretary in his department’s official announcement about the new laws.

Time is so tight because of the nature of the steel-making process.

Once switched off, blast furnaces are very hard to turn back on.

If this had happened in Scunthorpe – as seemed likely in a matter of days – then it would have been game over.

This move keeps the show on the road and opens up more time for talks over the long-term future of the plant.

While the official line in Whitehall is that “all options are on the table”, nationalisation seems increasingly likely.

That would need more legislation, if it was done – as seems likely – without the approval of the current owner.

Finding an alternative commercial partner has not been ruled out, but one is not waiting in the wings either.

As for what that long-term future looks like, with just five years of life left in the Scunthorpe blast furnaces, modernisation is inevitable.

Port Talbot’s plant saw its blast furnaces closed last year amid a switch to the more environmentally friendly electric arc furnaces and a loss of thousands of jobs.

Political figures in Wales are now questioning why nationalisation wasn’t on the table for this site.

The response from government is that the deal was done by the previous Tory administration and the owners of the South Wales site agreed to the terms.

But there is also a sense that this decision over British Steel is being shaped by the domestic and international political context.

Labour came to power promising to revitalise left-behind communities and inject a sense of pride back into places still reeling from the loss of traditional industry.

With that in mind, it would be politically intolerable to see the UK’s last two blast furnaces closed and thousands of jobs lost in a relatively deprived part of the country.

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Reform UK’s position of pushing for full and immediate nationalisation is also relevant, given the party is in electoral pursuit of Labour in many parts of the country where decline in manufacturing has been felt most acutely.

The geo-political situation is perhaps more pressing though.

Just look at the strength of the prime minister’s language in his Downing Street address – “our economic and national security are all on the line”.

The government’s reaction to the turmoil caused by President Donald Trump’s pronouncements on tariffs and security has been to emphasise the need to increase domestic resilience in both business and defence.

Becoming the only G7 nation unable to produce virgin steel at a time when globalisation appears to be in retreat hardly fits with that narrative.

It would also present serious practical questions about the ability of the UK to produce steel for defence and the broader switch to green energy production.

Then there is the intriguing subplot around US-China trade.

While this decision is separate from discussions with the White House on tariffs, one can imagine how a UK move to wrestle control of a site of national importance from its Chinese owner might go down with a US president currently engaged in a fierce trade war with Beijing.

This is a remarkable step from the government, but it is more a punctuation mark than a full answer.

The tension between manufacturing and decarbonisation remains, as do the challenges presented by a global economy appearing to fragment significantly.

But one thing is for sure.

As a political parable about changes to traditional industry and the challenges of globalisation, the saga of British Steel is hard to beat.