UK police hunt for asylum escapees

The fire is estimated to have caused about £38m damage

LONDON, England -- British police are searching for at least 13 asylum seekers who are believed to have escaped a detention centre after a major fire spread through the complex.

The Home Office admitted it was unable to say definitely how many asylum seekers had absconded from the centre on Friday, but about 23 refugees are thought to have escaped, with 10 being recaptured later, the UK's Press Association reported.

The problem has been made more difficult because it is believed documents were destroyed during the fire at Yarl's Wood, in Bedfordshire, near London, forcing officials to cross check with the Immigration Service's head office.

Three separate inquiries will be held into the series of blazes at Europe's largest immigration centre, which was officially opened by Home Secretary David Blunkett a month ago.

About £38 million worth of damage is estimated to have been caused at the £100 million centre which was being used to hold asylum seekers facing deportation after their applications to stay had failed.

The fire broke out late Thursday and continued into Friday morning, being made worse by the absence of water sprinklers.

The centre was built to hold up to 900 detainees, but 384 people, mainly from Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were there at the time.

The private security firm Group 4, which runs the site, told PA there had been a series of incidents in the run-up to the fire that "may or may not have a connection," including a number of fights, assaults on staff and vandalism.

Police told Reuters news agency that the fire may have been started deliberately by the detainees but investigations were continuing.

They are looking at the possibility that a disturbance erupted at the centre after a female detainee resisted being taken away in handcuffs for medical treatment.

"One of the possibilities is that this was an orchestrated incident because it escalated so quickly," a police spokeswoman said on Friday.

But some immigrants' advocates said that substandard conditions and overly long detentions of people who had not committed any crime were behind the disturbance.

"We need to take a long, hard look at the incident and at the treatment of asylum-seekers in general," Mark Littlewood, of the human rights group Liberty told The Associated Press.

"They need to be treated fairly, calmly and justly, not like common criminals."

Four nurses were "besieged" and locked in a room by detainees while the building was burning, a union official told PA.

Group 4 spokesman John Bates said keys stolen from two members of staff were used by detainees to open two side gates at the perimeter.

Several hundred CCTV cameras were smashed and there were also reports that detainees had stormed the hi-tech control room to destroy equipment and records, PA added.

Six people had been injured, including two police officers.

The Home Office said the Immigration Service will be holding a full investigation into the "serious disturbance," which will run alongside a police inquiry. Group 4 will hold a third investigation, it added.