Asylum detainees accused of attacking guards

Officials accused detainees of attacking guards who tried to put out a series of fires started deliberately at a high security Outback immigration centre today, as the Australian government denied its hardline policy against asylum seekers was in crisis.

“Officers were pelted with stones and threatened with metal bars as they tried to extinguish the fires which, driven by strong winds, spread rapidly and eventually destroyed two compounds,” the immigration department said in a statement.