Police attend full scale riot at asylum seeker detention centre on Nauru
Updated 2 minutes ago Map: Nauru
Police and security guards are trying to restore order at the detention centre on Nauru where a full scale riot has broken out.
A security guard, who does not want to be named, said refugees began rioting late this afternoon and within two hours had taken over the centre.
He says they gained access to a kitchen and armed themselves with knives and steel bars.
He says several new buildings have been set on fire and the medical centre has been destroyed.
At least 15 guards have been injured, including a local police officer who was stabbed.
Around 300 of the 500 detainees have escaped and guards are worried about a local fuel store on the island which may be targetted.
The security guard says Nauru's president has called on the island's local men to help detention centre guards restore peace, and hundreds of men have responded.
The Immigration Department confirmed the reports of injuries but it cannot say how serious they are or how many people are hurt.
The Department says it cannot say what started the disruption.
The Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul says the protest is over the slow processing of claims and has been in the planning for the past few days.
"The tension has built significantly, I don't think there should be any surprise about this," he said.
"But as I said the recent arrivals, pushed into circumstances where it's become even more crowded, all the added uncertainty about their delays, every now and then it reaches breaking point.
"There was a plan to actually leave the detention centre and march to the airport, and stage a protest at the airport for an hour and then come back to the detention centre.
"But it seems there's been significant resistance by the guards and people haven't managed to get out of the detention centre and we've got now a major protest inside the detention centre itself."
Mr Rintoul says it is unlikely the action is connected to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's announcement of a new asylum seeker policy this afternoon. Conditions at Nauru detention centre 'deteriorating'
He said he has been in regular contact with asylum seekers over the past week and that they are extremely frustrated and angry.
"The physical conditions inside the detention centre is deteriorating," he said.
"There are not sufficient facilities for the increased numbers that have come (and) people are increasingly angry about the processing.
"They've been told it will be a week or so before they get their first interview.
"[Others have] had interviews and now, six months on, they still haven't got answers to the refugee determination, so the anger and frustration has been building over weeks and months."
Mr Rintoul said some of the people involved in the protest have on Nauru since the detention centre opened.
"We've also seen increasing self-harm incidents over the last period, three or four days ago, an Iranian man attempted to hang himself," he said.
"Two serious self-harm incidents by Tamil asylum seekers on Nauru today, prior to the protests.
"I really do hope that [Papua New Guinea] prime minister [Peter] O'Neill is looking what's happening on Nauru tonight.
"If he wants to see the future of a mega detention centre on an island, he needs to look at Nauru."
