The child killer Ian Huntley has died after being attacked in prison.

The former school caretaker killed Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both aged 10, in Soham, Cambridgeshire on 4 August 2002. The girls had left a family barbecue to buy sweets.

On 26 February reports emerged that Huntley, 52, had been taken to hospital after being assaulted at HMP Frankland. It is thought he was knocked unconscious with a metal pole, according to the Sun, which first reported the attack. It was widely reported he had been taken off life support on Friday after his condition deteriorated.

After the murder of Holly and Jessica, who were friends, a 13-day search took place that became one of the most intensive in British criminal history. Their bodies were found in a ditch near an RAF base about 10 miles from Soham.

A total of 400 police officers were assigned full-time to the case, with investigators questioning every registered sex offender in Cambridgeshire and neighbouring Lincolnshire.

Huntley became a suspect after claiming to have had a conversation with the girls shortly after they were last seen. His agitated demeanour and questions about the length of time that DNA evidence would last caused police officers to become suspicious.

Initially, Huntley was given an alibi by his then partner, Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant whom the girls knew, but this broke down under police questioning. He was later arrested when officers searching his workplace found charred pieces of the Manchester United shirts the girls had been wearing when they disappeared, along with other evidence connecting him to the crime.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman remains one of the most shocking and devastating cases in our nation’s history, and our thoughts are with their families.”

Huntley was serving two life sentences for the murders, while Carr served half of a 42-month sentence for perverting the course of justice.

HMP Frankland is a category A prison, meaning it has the highest level of security, and houses a number of high-profile inmates, including Michael Adebolajo, one of the two men convicted of murdering Lee Rigby; the serial killer Levi Bellfield; and Wayne Couzens, the police officer who murdered Sarah Everard.

Violent attacks at the prison are not uncommon. In April last year, three prison officers were taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, including burns and stab wounds, after allegedly being attacked with hot cooking oil and homemade weapons by an inmate, Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, Salman Abedi.