WOOMERA (Australia), March 31: Twelve illegal immigrants were still at large on Sunday following the recapture of 38 others who escaped in a violent weekend breakout from an immigration detention centre here.

Extra police and security personnel were bussed to the centre after Friday’s riot in which the detainees were freed by hundreds of protesters who tore down the perimeter razor-wire fence and stormed the compound.

More than 30 people were recovering from injuries received during a pitched battle in which security personnel used tear gas against detainees armed with rocks, razors and fence posts used as spears.

For the third day running Sunday, protesters demonstrating against Australia’s treatment of illegal immigrants clashed with police, some mounted, outside the centre in the South Australian outback.

At one stage about 200 protesters breached a boundary fence as detainees watched from rooftops. But security officers escorted the protesters off the site before they managed to enter the main compound.

Several hundred demonstrators then marched to the police station here to present a petition that said if one of them was charged with aiding the detainees escape, they should all be charged. They returned to their campsite after a noisy demonstration.

Police said they had recaptured 38 of the 50 escapees confirmed as having escaped from the remote compound in the South Australian outback on Friday.

They said some of the 12 still free were believed to be hiding among about 800 protesters at the campsite a kilometre from the compound, which held almost 350 detainees, mostly from Afghanistan or the Middle East.

There were fears for the safety of escapees who might have tried to flee into the rugged and arid outback, Superintendent Wayne Bristow said.

“This is a desert area, these people had no knowledge of it,” he told reporters, describing the escape as “a tragedy waiting to happen.”—AFP