Youth detainees have returned to Darwin’s notorious Don Dale detention centre after a riot less than a week ago left a worker injured.

The 25 teenagers returned to the centre on Saturday night after being moved to Darwin’s police watch house.

Several attacked a youth justice worker with a metal table leg and stole his keys, let other inmates out of cells, set alight and destroyed an education building and used angle grinders to try to escape. The worker required seven stitches to defence wounds on his hand.

The Northern Territory government released a statement on Sunday saying the centre had become operational on Saturday afternoon following “a full security assessment to make sure all safety measures were in place”.

“All building and accommodation areas at the centre are back on line with the exception of the education administration area,” it said.

Five of the detainees identified as ringleaders could be segregated, the Northern Territory deputy chief minister, Nicole Manison, told reporters on Saturday.

It comes after TV footage of teenagers being tear-gassed, spit-hooded and shackled at Don Dale prompted a royal commission two years ago.

The government has committed $229m to roll out the recommendations.