diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/issue-1153 b/changelog/unreleased/issue-1153
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c6eaa4ad2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/issue-1153
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+Enhancement: Support pruning even after running out of disk space
+
+When running out of disk space it was no longer possible to add or remove
+data from a repository. To help with recovering from such a deadlock, the
+prune command now supports an `--unsafe-recover-no-free-space` option to
+recover from such situations. Make sure to read the documentation first!
+
+https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/1153
+https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/3481
diff --git a/cmd/restic/cmd_prune.go b/cmd/restic/cmd_prune.go
index 9447f8145..a6a8d0bde 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/cmd_prune.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/cmd_prune.go
@@ -39,7 +39,10 @@ Exit status is 0 if the command was successful, and non-zero if there was any er
 
 // PruneOptions collects all options for the cleanup command.
 type PruneOptions struct {
-	DryRun bool
+	DryRun                bool
+	UnsafeNoSpaceRecovery string
+
+	unsafeRecovery bool
 
 	MaxUnused      string
 	maxUnusedBytes func(used uint64) (unused uint64) // calculates the number of unused bytes after repacking, according to MaxUnused
@@ -56,6 +59,7 @@ func init() {
 	cmdRoot.AddCommand(cmdPrune)
 	f := cmdPrune.Flags()
 	f.BoolVarP(&pruneOptions.DryRun, "dry-run", "n", false, "do not modify the repository, just print what would be done")
+	f.StringVarP(&pruneOptions.UnsafeNoSpaceRecovery, "unsafe-recover-no-free-space", "", "", "UNSAFE, READ THE DOCUMENTATION BEFORE USING! Try to recover a repository stuck with no free space. Do not use without trying out 'prune --max-repack-size 0' first.")
 	addPruneOptions(cmdPrune)
 }
 
@@ -75,6 +79,10 @@ func verifyPruneOptions(opts *PruneOptions) error {
 		}
 		opts.MaxRepackBytes = uint64(size)
 	}
+	if opts.UnsafeNoSpaceRecovery != "" {
+		// prevent repacking data to make sure users cannot get stuck.
+		opts.MaxRepackBytes = 0
+	}
 
 	maxUnused := strings.TrimSpace(opts.MaxUnused)
 	if maxUnused == "" {
@@ -136,6 +144,14 @@ func runPrune(opts PruneOptions, gopts GlobalOptions) error {
 		return errors.Fatal("prune requires a backend connection limit of at least two")
 	}
 
+	if opts.UnsafeNoSpaceRecovery != "" {
+		repoID := repo.Config().ID
+		if opts.UnsafeNoSpaceRecovery != repoID {
+			return errors.Fatalf("must pass id '%s' to --unsafe-recover-no-free-space", repoID)
+		}
+		opts.unsafeRecovery = true
+	}
+
 	lock, err := lockRepoExclusive(gopts.ctx, repo)
 	defer unlockRepo(lock)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -522,7 +538,14 @@ func prune(opts PruneOptions, gopts GlobalOptions, repo restic.Repository, usedB
 		ignorePacks.Merge(removePacks)
 	}
 
-	if len(ignorePacks) != 0 {
+	if opts.unsafeRecovery {
+		Verbosef("deleting index files\n")
+		indexFiles := repo.Index().(*repository.MasterIndex).IDs()
+		err = DeleteFilesChecked(gopts, repo, indexFiles, restic.IndexFile)
+		if err != nil {
+			return errors.Fatalf("%s", err)
+		}
+	} else if len(ignorePacks) != 0 {
 		err = rebuildIndexFiles(gopts, repo, ignorePacks, nil)
 		if err != nil {
 			return errors.Fatalf("%s", err)
@@ -534,11 +557,18 @@ func prune(opts PruneOptions, gopts GlobalOptions, repo restic.Repository, usedB
 		DeleteFiles(gopts, repo, removePacks, restic.PackFile)
 	}
 
+	if opts.unsafeRecovery {
+		_, err = writeIndexFiles(gopts, repo, ignorePacks, nil)
+		if err != nil {
+			return errors.Fatalf("%s", err)
+		}
+	}
+
 	Verbosef("done\n")
 	return nil
 }
 
-func rebuildIndexFiles(gopts GlobalOptions, repo restic.Repository, removePacks restic.IDSet, extraObsolete restic.IDs) error {
+func writeIndexFiles(gopts GlobalOptions, repo restic.Repository, removePacks restic.IDSet, extraObsolete restic.IDs) (restic.IDSet, error) {
 	Verbosef("rebuilding index\n")
 
 	idx := (repo.Index()).(*repository.MasterIndex)
@@ -546,6 +576,11 @@ func rebuildIndexFiles(gopts GlobalOptions, repo restic.Repository, removePacks
 	bar := newProgressMax(!gopts.Quiet, packcount, "packs processed")
 	obsoleteIndexes, err := idx.Save(gopts.ctx, repo, removePacks, extraObsolete, bar)
 	bar.Done()
+	return obsoleteIndexes, err
+}
+
+func rebuildIndexFiles(gopts GlobalOptions, repo restic.Repository, removePacks restic.IDSet, extraObsolete restic.IDs) error {
+	obsoleteIndexes, err := writeIndexFiles(gopts, repo, removePacks, extraObsolete)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
diff --git a/cmd/restic/integration_test.go b/cmd/restic/integration_test.go
index ebf63e930..792b825c2 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/integration_test.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/integration_test.go
@@ -1573,26 +1573,35 @@ func TestCheckRestoreNoLock(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestPrune(t *testing.T) {
-	t.Run("0", func(t *testing.T) {
-		opts := PruneOptions{MaxUnused: "0%"}
+	testPruneVariants(t, false)
+	testPruneVariants(t, true)
+}
+
+func testPruneVariants(t *testing.T, unsafeNoSpaceRecovery bool) {
+	suffix := ""
+	if unsafeNoSpaceRecovery {
+		suffix = "-recovery"
+	}
+	t.Run("0"+suffix, func(t *testing.T) {
+		opts := PruneOptions{MaxUnused: "0%", unsafeRecovery: unsafeNoSpaceRecovery}
 		checkOpts := CheckOptions{ReadData: true, CheckUnused: true}
 		testPrune(t, opts, checkOpts)
 	})
 
-	t.Run("50", func(t *testing.T) {
-		opts := PruneOptions{MaxUnused: "50%"}
+	t.Run("50"+suffix, func(t *testing.T) {
+		opts := PruneOptions{MaxUnused: "50%", unsafeRecovery: unsafeNoSpaceRecovery}
 		checkOpts := CheckOptions{ReadData: true}
 		testPrune(t, opts, checkOpts)
 	})
 
-	t.Run("unlimited", func(t *testing.T) {
-		opts := PruneOptions{MaxUnused: "unlimited"}
+	t.Run("unlimited"+suffix, func(t *testing.T) {
+		opts := PruneOptions{MaxUnused: "unlimited", unsafeRecovery: unsafeNoSpaceRecovery}
 		checkOpts := CheckOptions{ReadData: true}
 		testPrune(t, opts, checkOpts)
 	})
 
-	t.Run("CachableOnly", func(t *testing.T) {
-		opts := PruneOptions{MaxUnused: "5%", RepackCachableOnly: true}
+	t.Run("CachableOnly"+suffix, func(t *testing.T) {
+		opts := PruneOptions{MaxUnused: "5%", RepackCachableOnly: true, unsafeRecovery: unsafeNoSpaceRecovery}
 		checkOpts := CheckOptions{ReadData: true}
 		testPrune(t, opts, checkOpts)
 	})
diff --git a/doc/060_forget.rst b/doc/060_forget.rst
index 55acc42ea..ab67368aa 100644
--- a/doc/060_forget.rst
+++ b/doc/060_forget.rst
@@ -444,3 +444,31 @@ The ``prune`` command accepts the following options:
 -  ``--dry-run`` only show what ``prune`` would do.
 
 -  ``--verbose`` increased verbosity shows additional statistics for ``prune``.
+
+
+Recovering from "no free space" errors
+**************************************
+
+In some cases when a repository has grown large enough to fill up all disk space or the
+allocated quota, then ``prune`` might fail to free space. ``prune`` works in such a way
+that a repository remains usable no matter at which point the command is interrupted.
+However, this also means that ``prune`` requires some scratch space to work.
+
+In most cases it is sufficient to instruct ``prune`` to use as little scratch space as
+possible by running it as ``prune --max-repack-size 0``. Note that for restic versions
+before 0.13.0 ``prune --max-repack-size 1`` must be used. Obviously, this can only work
+if several snapshots have been removed using ``forget`` before. This then allows the
+``prune`` command to actually remove data from the repository. If the command succeeds,
+but there is still little free space, then remove a few more snapshots and run ``prune`` again.
+
+If ``prune`` fails to complete, then ``prune --unsafe-recover-no-free-space SOME-ID``
+is available as a method of last resort. It allows prune to work with little to no free
+space. However, a **failed** ``prune`` run can cause the repository to become
+**temporarily unusable**. Therefore, make sure that you have a stable connection to the
+repository storage, before running this command. In case the command fails, it may become
+necessary to manually remove all files from the `index/` folder of the repository and
+run `rebuild-index` afterwards.
+
+To prevent accidental usages of the ``--unsafe-recover-no-free-space`` option it is
+necessary to first run ``prune --unsafe-recover-no-free-space SOME-ID`` and then replace
+``SOME-ID`` with the requested ID.