Two detainees were injured in a riot [sic] involving children at the Nauru detention centre overnight, in a dramatic escalation of tensions on the remote Pacific island.
Video footage obtained by Fairfax Media shows frightening scenes including young people crying and saying "they are hitting us", before screams and loud banging can be heard.
The disturbance is believed to have occurred in the family compound.
A former worker at Nauru who is in close contact with asylum seekers and refugees said she was told that members of the Wilson Security emergency response team hit teenagers who had been protesting.
She said the detainees locked the response team members out of part of the camp, and retaliated by throwing rocks and chairs.
They called this "de-escalat[ing] the protest action". Of course, if they let people protest, they wouldn't have any need to "de-escalate". But that goes against Australia's authoritarian mindset, which says they have the right to stick people in concentration camps on remote islands, and they're not allowed to say a single word against it.