A review of the way Ian Huntley is looked after in jail is under way after the child murderer made a new suicide bid despite official warnings that he was an "ongoing significant risk".
The child killer was found unconscious in his cell at Wakefield high security prison in West Yorkshire following a suspected overdose.
Sources said Huntley is in intensive care at Pinderfields General Hospital in Wakefield, where his stomach had been pumped.
Ex-school caretaker Huntley, 32, is now under heavy sedation.
The incident raised yet more questions about the Prison Service's supervision of one of Britain's highest-profile murderers.
Huntley had already tried to kill himself in June 2003 while awaiting trial for the murders of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire.
A report into the 2003 attempt was released by the Home Office less than eight weeks ago following a Freedom of Information request, but received no publicity at the time.
Its stark warning was: "Mr Huntley presents an ongoing significant risk of self-harm. In managing him, the safest strategy is to assume he will commit another act of self-harm if given the opportunity."
Following the killer's latest apparent overdose, a community leader in Soham criticised the prison authorities for being "lax" and said Huntley must serve his sentence.
Questions may also be raised about procedures at Wakefield Prison, where serial killer Harold Shipman committed suicide in January 2004.
