Detainee riot reported on Christmas Island

Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection has confirmed a “disturbance” at the Christmas Island detention centre.

A department spokesperson said no injuries have been reported.

“On Saturday morning (November 7) the Department was advised of the escape of an illegal maritime arrival from Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre (CI IDC) by service provider staff”.

“The Department is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for detainees, and maintaining the good order of detention facilities”.

A New Zealand Labour MP Kelvin Davis, who recently visited the island, said a New Zealander in detention had told him detainees had taken over the centre and guards had retreated.

“The only source we can find, that we’ll call a primary source, is a New Zealand politician [Mr Davis] who’s in fact jumped on Twitter and spread this story – there are no other indications, at this stage, that this has happened”, he says.

“Any criminal offences will be referred to the police”.

“The canteen’s been smashed to pieces, there’s no security, there’s no emergency response team, there’s no border patrol, there’s no guards, there’s nothing”, he said, according to audio provided to ABC radio. “I believe a few canisters have been fired into them but haven’t gone off”.

Christmas Island Shire President, Gordon Thomson, says he has tried to contact the Immigration Department for more information. But he had been charged with assault following a fight between detainees at the detention centre.

“As this investigation is the subject of a report for the Coroner, no further comment will be made at this time”.

Rintoul said Chegeni arrived in Australia in 2010, and had been found to be a refugee when he was in Curtin detention centre, around two and half years ago.

The RAC says detainees in the centre are reporting police brought the man’s body back to the centre at 9 am local time on Sunday morning.

The discovery comes two days after rumours of an escape had circulated with other residents of the centre.

It also said the main North West Point centre – where the asylum seeker who was found dead on Sunday went missing from – would only be used as a contingency from 2016.