A convicted killer has been staging a protest on top of Strangeways Prison in the UK for almost 24 hours.

Stuart Horner (35) scaled an 18ft fence to get on the roof of the high-security men's jail in north Manchester on Sunday afternoon.

Negotiators have been trying to convince Horner to come down but he refuses.

The prisoner was earlier wearing jogging pants and no shirt and then stripped down to just his Manchester United underwear.

He has been climbing poles and chimneys, smashing windows and banging a metal pole and walking on the edge of the roof.

He has also been shouting that he intends to stay up on the roof for 40 days and 40 nights to beat a previous record, according to reports.

It is unclear exactly why Horner is protesting - but he has apparently been yelling about conditions at the prison. He also shouted that he wanted to change prison history.

He has been communicating with his fellow inmates by shouting from the chimney top, McCarthy said.

He has food, water, cigarettes and blankets with him. All the roads around the prison are sealed off.

In 2011, Horner shot his uncle dead with a sawn-off shotgun after a long-running family feud.

He was sentenced to a minimum 27 years in prison.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed they received a call from prison staff asking for assistance over the "one person protest" at 3.35pm on Sunday.

A spokesman for the force said: "The man is conducting a lone protest and has managed to get onto the top of the main building and cause damage to the roof".

"Staff at the prison are working to engage with the prisoner and resolve this situation, but he has remained on the roof overnight".

In April 1990, much of Strangeways Prison was destroyed during deadly violence at the facility. Two people died and hundreds more were injured in the violence, which lasted for 25 days.

The jail was rebuilt and later renamed HM Prison Manchester, but is still widely known as Strangeways.