A PRISON officer has had a finger bitten off in a frenzied attack by an asylum seeker being held at Liverpool Prison.

A detainee from Ghana, West Africa, believed to suffer from mental health problems, lunged at the guard as he opened his cell door on wing B1.

The officer, a married man who has not been named, lost half the finger and was taken by ambulance to Fazakerley Hospital.

Now he faces an agonising wait for the results of blood tests for HIV, hepatitis and other diseases.

Asylum seekers being sent to the jail are not routinely screened for disease, a situation that has alarmed health experts.

The guard is receiving counselling after his ordeal.

It is understood that the inmate was being detained at Walton while his asylum application was being dealt with by the Home Office.

The Prison Officers Association (POA) is holding talks with the prison governor following the attack.

He said: "It would be inappropriate for us to comment on any further details at this stage."

Serious concerns have been raised by health and council chiefs in Liverpool about the health of asylum seekers coming to the city. At present, there is no official Government screening programme for asylum seekers entering Britain, although a review is currently under way.

Liverpool City Council executive member for housing and neighbourhood services, Coun Richard Kemp, said the council used to screen every refugee sent to its Greenbank Court facility in Sefton Park.

He said the process discovered between three and five per cent were suffering from communicable diseases such as tuberculosis.