Unrest erupts at Christmas islet:

Detainees set buildings alight and armed themselves with baseball bats in a riot at an Australian immigration facility on Christmas Island, people at the centre said Monday, with officials admitting the situation was out of control.

The disturbance at the Indian Ocean island centre comes after the unexplained death of an escaped asylum-seeker.

Detainees have complained about their treatment at the facility, which currently houses 203 men, among them asylumseekers awaiting processing and non-citizens being deported because they have criminal convictions.

“Order or control hasn’t been regained within the centre,” Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told Sky News.

He added that no injuries had been listed, no damage been done to the perimeter fence and no-one had since tried to escape.

The Department for Immigration and Border Protection described the incident as a “major disturbance” but denied there was a large scale riot.

“There is currently no large scale ‘riot’ involving the majority of the centre’s population... but the centre remains tense and staff have been withdrawn from compounds for safety reasons,” a department statement said.

“A group of detainees, believed to be non-citizens whose visas have been cancelled under mandatory cancellation provisions, continue to agitate and cause damage to the facility.”

The department declined to specify the number of staff that had been evacuated when contacted by AFP.

The trouble followed a peaceful protest by detainees on Sunday after the discovery of the body of an Iranian Kurdish asylum-seeker, named by Australian media as Fazel Chegeni, who had escaped. (AFP)