7 Maltese officers injured in riot at migrant detention center

Seven police officers were injured, two of them seriously, during a riot that broke out in one of Malta’s detention centers, the police said in a statement on Friday.

A total of 27 migrants were arrested, including five who had escaped but were apprehended afterward.

The police said the riot began at around 2 a.m. when migrants began banging and demanding their immediate freedom.

The incident, however, quickly escalated when they started throwing stones and iron rods in the direction of the center’s workers and detention officers.

The police anti-riot team and members of the Rapid Intervention Unit, as well as Armed Forces soldiers, were called in to quell the violent riot.

While the police were controlling the situation, some of the migrants injured seven police officers, the police said.

Ambulance teams were called in and two officers were taken to hospital for treatment. The rest were only slightly injured.

The police arrested 27 migrants who participated in the riot, as well as a detention officer who grabbed a shotgun he had in his car and fired it in the direction of a migrant, luckily only slightly injuring him.

Members of the Civil Protection Department were also called to the scene to put out the fires started by the migrants inside the living quarters. Police investigations are underway.