Detainees inside Campsfield House detention centre described the scale of the riot and the devastation caused.

The men said security cameras and lights were smashed in the centre's blue block, while toilets and showers were flooded.

And they said detainees had started fires by setting blankets alight in their rooms.

Speaking to the Oxford Mail from inside the centre, the men said the disturbance was sparked by the sudden removal of fellow detainee Davis Osagie.

They claimed officials entered his room at 5.23am to forcibly remove African-born Mr Osagie from his bed. One of his roommates, who asked not to be named, said: "He was on the top bunk of the bed and they dragged him down.

"About five officers were holding us down, preventing us from interfering. They just came running in like in the movies.

"I was scared because I did not know what was going on. He was screaming. After they took him away forcefully everyone was angry.

"It just escalated from there. There was a confrontation with the officers. There was just anger. It's not calm and I don't think it will be calm now because people are still angry.

"There are no lights, the toilets have been flooded and the cameras have been broken."

He added the rioting lasted for about 20 minutes and involved dozens of people.

He said Mr Osagie had been working as an immigration officer at Edinburgh Airport before the authorities realised his own paperwork was not in order.

The detainees said Mr Osagie, originally from Benin, had been held in Campsfield for three months and had a two-year-old daughter and a pregnant fiancée living in Edinburgh.

A 39-year-old fellow detainee added: "Early this morning somebody was shouting and screaming.

"This man was being dragged, kicking. There is blood all over the floor. People are trying to pull this place down.

"There's no lighting, there's flooding - that's the reaction to what happened this morning.

"Everybody is angry. It has not stopped. For every action there is a reaction. I think almost everybody was involved.

"There was fire. They were setting fire to the blankets. They smashed the cameras. They turned the place upside down."

Tonight, the Home Office said two of the three wings at Campsfield were fully operational. But inmates in the wing affected by the riot would be moved to other centres.

Eight detainees are still missing after escaping from Campsfield House during a riot four months ago.

Three of the runaways served jail terms for robbery, drugs offences and growing cannabis and appeared on Crimestoppers UK Most Wanted list.

Twenty-six detainees fled the centre after escaping during a fire in August. Police arrested 12 in the immediate hours afterwards. Three more were found days later.

The Home Office said tonight that remaining escapees were still missing.