SOHAM monster Ian Huntley was given just a five per cent chance of survival after he was battered senseless with a metal pole in a prison workshop.

was in an induced coma today as he was treated in hospital following the attack at just after 9am on Thursday.

Ian Huntley, handcuffed and wrapped in a blanket, leaving Pinderfield Hospital in a wheelchair.Monster Ian Huntley was bludgeoned with a spiked metal pole in jailCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd Mugshot of Anthony Russell, a suspect in three Leamington Spa murders.Triple killer Anthony Russell is suspected of battering himCredit: Enterprise Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells smiling while holding onto ropes.Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells were murdered by ex-school caretaker HuntleyCredit: Rex

And sources said medics “worked miracles” to keep the fiend alive after staff who saw Huntley after the beating assumed he was dead.

One told The Sun: “It is miraculous he is still alive.

“Medics have worked miracles on him and he has clung on.

“The nurses and staff who first saw him thought he was gone.

“And medics said there was only a five per cent chance of survival after an attack like that.

“It is still , and he could get worse.

“But it is extraordinary that he is still alive.

“When it first happened, he was totally unresponsive and could not breathe.”

Medical crews including an air ambulance raced to the County jail after Huntley, 52, was

Ian Huntley, a man with short dark hair and a mustache, wears a dark gray zip-up top with a blue collar, standing with his arms crossed.Huntley was unconscious in a pool of blood with his head ‘split in two’ after the attackCredit: PA:Press Association A young girl, Jessica Chapman, sitting at a table with bottles and glasses in the background, taken a week before she went missing in 2002.Jessica Chapman was also murdered, with their deaths shocking the nation in 2002Credit: MMP A photo of a 10-year-old girl, Holly Wells, smiling in a red sweater with a white collar.Holly Wells was murdered by monster HuntleyCredit: Collect

Although a helicopter was on the scene, he was placed in an induced coma and taken to hospital by road.

His attacker – understood to be , 43 – bludgeoned Huntley with a three-foot spiked metal pole, hitting him at least six times.

We told yesterday how the attack – which sources said was brewing and was “only a matter of time” – left Huntley’s head split open.

Today he was being treated on a hospital ward with armed police standing guard and senior justice officials present.

Evil Huntley is serving at least 40 years for the murders of pals Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambs in 2002.

He lured them into the home he shared with Maxine Carr – their teaching assistant – after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets.

Huntley and Carr were arrested on August 17, 2002 – 13 days after the girls went missing.

Huntley denied the murders and put the girls’ families through a harrowing six-week trial at the Old Bailey from November 2003.

Months earlier, in June 2003, he had attempted suicide at Woodhill prison in , Bucks.

The fiend claimed at his trial that Holly suffered a nose bleed and fell into a bath, banging her head and drowning.

He said Jessica screamed so he put his hand over her mouth until she stopped.

Huntley was sent to Wakefield jail where in 2005 he was scalded with boiling water by another lag.

In September 2006 he tried to kill himself in his cell and was rushed to hospital.

He was transferred to Frankland in 2008. In 2010 he was he received non life-threatening injuries to his neck after his throat was slashed.

Carr, now 49, served 21 months for perverting justice after giving Huntley a false alibi. She now lives under a new identity.

The Great North Air Ambulance helicopter on the ground at Frankland Prison.An air ambulance helicopter was on site but Huntley was taken to hospital by road An aerial view of HMP Frankland prison, surrounded by fields and trees.HMP Frankland, where the attack took placeCredit: Paramount Plus A newspaper headline reads, "Killer bludgeoned Huntley with metal spike then bragged."The Sun’s front page today

LONG BEEN A LAGS’ TARGET

By

IAN Huntley has been a target for lags since he was first locked up.

In 2010 he had his throat slit by Damien Fowkes, who was given a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years for the attack.

Huntley had 21 stitches and was left with a scar from his jugular to the other side of his windpipe.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw refused his bid for £100,000 compo.

Then, in 2018, Huntley said a convict tried to slit his throat a second time with a razor blade attached to a toothbrush — but he overpowered him and called guards.

Huntley is believed to have tried to kill himself at least three times — before his 2003 trial he was reportedly left in a coma following an overdose.

Three years later, he was found unconscious in his cell at HMP Wakefield after another suspected overdose and was treated in nearby Pinderfields hospital.

And in 2012 he was hospitalised again by a third suicide bid.

In 2019, we reported that Huntley ended up in solitary confinement for lashing out at officers and telling them to “f*** off”.