Highly placed sources told our news centre that a handful of detainees were met outside of their rooms and a conflict ensued between them and security personnel.

It is reported that the detainees managed to pull one of the officers inside a room and attacked him.

BVI News understands that during the tussle, one of the detainees managed to break free and proceeded to release the other detainees at the facility by unlocking their respective room doors and causing them to then roam free.

A small riot reportedly ensued inside the facility and police were summoned to the location to render assistance. It is said that they met security officers trying to contain the situation.

Our news centre was told that police had to utilise pepper-spraying to regain control of the detainees. BVI News is not aware of any managing to escape the facility as a result of that incident.

Local law enforcement authorities and security personnel have a continuing history of having detainees escape on their watch.

Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley announced recently that his government has assigned hundreds of thousands of dollars in next year’s budget to build a detention centre for illegal immigrants.