WOOMERA, Australia -- Up to 20 asylum seekers, including one child, escaped from an Australian detention center Friday by scaling fences topped with razor wire or cutting holes with bolt cutters thrown to them by protesters outside.

Authorities recaptured 12 refugees after the escape, which occurred amid clashes between police and demonstrators at the Woomera Detention Center in central Australia.

Inside the center, detainees flung chairs, rocks, bed posts and garbage bins at staff, who responded with tear gas, Immigration Department spokesman Paul Oliver said.

The search for the remaining fugitives continued Friday night. Oliver gave no details of how or where the 12 were recaptured.

Some 300 mostly Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers are being held at the detention center. The demonstrators were protesting Australia's policy of detaining all refugees who arrive illegally in the country.

One escaping refugee dashed through a hole in a fence with both arms raised yelling "Freedom! Freedom!" She was immediately tackled by a security guard but protesters wrestled her free and she ran off.

Another refugee ran out shouting "After two years I'm free!"

Up to a dozen of the refugees escaped by scrambling over the razor fences around the center, and appeared afterward to be bleeding from cuts. Protesters immediately put new clothes on the escaped refugees and whisked them away from police, who then began scuffling with rioters.

Ten police on horseback rode into the crowd in an attempt to quell the escalating violence. As they did, up to eight more refugees broke out, some of them escaping through holes in the fences.

Oliver said 15 to 20 people escaped. Speaking by telephone from inside the center, he said one security officer suffered minor injuries from gravel thrown in his face.

The clashes subsided Friday night, and the protesters drifted away from the camp. But unrest continued inside the detention center, Oliver said.