Illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers set fire to part of their detention centre on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa yesterday after a failed escape attempt, police said.

Fourteen people were being treated for smoke inhalation but no one was seriously injured, Italian media reported.

Police said many of the immigrants involved in the unrest were from Tunisia.

It was the latest outbreak of unrest at the newly named Centre for Identification and Expulsion, which Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government hopes will speed deportations of illegal immigrants.

The United Nations criticised the centre last month and expressed concern about conditions there.

"There were certainly difficult moments," police chief Girolamo di Fazio told Italian television, adding migrants hurled "objects" at police trying to restrain them.

"Then they set fire to one of the pavilions, which suffered serious damage."

Lampedusa's Mayor Dino De Rubeis said flames reached a height of 10 metres and police used tear gas to end the riot.

"This is the fault of the government... the immigrants are exasperated," Mr De Rubeis told Italy's ANSA news agency.

Originally a temporary stop for people waiting for transfer to other centres in Italy, the camp's role has changed this year.