Three inmates have been charged with attempted murder after a disturbance at a maximum security jail.

The men appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court in connection with the trouble at Shotts Prison in Lanarkshire on Tuesday night.

William Lewis, 32, James Holland, 32, and Daniel Boyle,29, appeared on petition, each charged with three counts of attempted murder.

They made no plea or declaration, and were committed for further examination.

Tony Cameron: Tougher on drugs

Earlier, the head of Scotland's prison service, Tony Cameron, had visited three warders who were stabbed when unrest broke out in a special unit at the jail.

The men had been taken to Wishaw General Hospital where two underwent exploratory surgery. The third man was later discharged.

It was the second disturbance at the jail in less than a week.

Staff intervened at 0530 GMT to end the unrest which broke out at about 1700 GMT on Tuesday in a unit housing new, long-term prisoners who are having difficulty adapting to the prison regime.

Drug detection

Mr Cameron said that two outbreaks of trouble could be related to stiffer searches for drugs at the prison.

He said: "Without hermetically sealing it, we could not possibly stop all drugs. But we can get it down to a very small level and we have been having some successes.

"Whether that is the cause or not we don't know but we've been having more success about drug detection in the recent past."

An investigation was launched last week after a 19-hour protest at the jail.

The prison has seen unrest in the past

About 50 inmates were involved in the disturbance, in which a prison officer suffered a broken leg.

The prison, which is sited near the village of Shotts, has been affected by unrest in the past.

There was a stand-off in April last year between prisoners and authorities after an electrical storm cut off supplies to the facility.

All prisoners at Shotts are serving a minimum of four years, while many have been sentenced to between 10 years and life for serious crimes such as murder.

The prison is also the base for Scotland's National Induction Centre, where all inmates sentenced to 10 years or more serve their first 12 months.

The prison, which was built in 1978 and can hold up to 560 inmates, is currently running just below capacity.