Exclusive: At a makeshift hospital, the injured are brought in, one after another. At one point a staff member shouts out: ‘gunshot wound’

Chilling footage has emerged of “war zone”-like scenes during last week’s unrest at the Manus Island detention centre, showing dozens of asylum seekers – most unconscious or semiconscious and many with serious injuries – receiving treatment from frantic staff tending to them by torchlight.



The video, obtained by Guardian Australia, was filmed at the makeshift hospital created on a concrete wharf next to the floating accommodation block used by Australian detention centre staff. It is the first footage to be seen from the disturbance that left one man, Reza Barati, dead, one shot, and dozens wounded, 13 seriously.

The footage, shot in the early hours of Tuesday, after G4S personnel “lost control” of their local riot squads and Papua New Guinea police were observed in violent altercations with asylum seekers, shows the injured brought in on a ute, one after another. The events occur in near darkness, with only a soft green light, torches and headlamps from the vehicles illuminating the makeshift hospital.

Some asylum seekers being treated at the scene can be heard groaning in pain. At one point a staff member shouts out the words “gunshot wound” and a body is rushed through.

No asylum seekers can be seen at any point resisting staff, and one witness told Guardian Australia that at least one patient was observed with a plastic handcuff on one hand during the night.

“It was like a war zone,” a witness to the filmed events told Guardian Australia. “People were covered in blood – so many people came in half an hour.”

The footage was filmed between 12.41am and 1.06am on Tuesday. Almost immediately afterwards, witnesses say, all staff on the floating accommodation block, Hotel Bibby, were asked to help, whether or not they had medical training. At this point the number of casualties increased. “The medics were short of staff. It was chaotic,” a witness said.

The wounded asylum seekers were separated into three areas: an assessment area, a critical area and a non-critical area, according to the witness.

At 12:58am one asylum seeker, a tall, muscular, young man can be seen being brought in for assessment and then moved instantly off for further treatment. His body is limp, hanging off the end of the stretcher. Guardian Australia has contacted a family member of Reza Barati, who said they could not identify the young man in the image.

“People were moaning, ‘Papu, Papu’ – meaning local people,” said the witness to the filmed events.

Frantic staff can be heard during the continual arrivals. One shouts to a group seemingly running with a body, “walking guys, walking”. Pools of liquid can be seen on the concrete. Blood and bruising is visible on many of the patients. A line of unused chairs rests in the assessment area, but all patients are treated on camp beds or blue mattresses.

On 18 February, the day after the unrest began, Guardian Australia reported witness accounts of the scenes at the staff accommodation block. One contractor told Guardian Australia: “They were just makeshift beds. Transferees were carried in on sheets. Blood everywhere, crying. There were 30 or 40 clients down there. We had gunshot wounds, some with head injuries.”

The contractor took notes on what patients told her. One Iranian said: “I did nothing, I wasn’t involved in the protests, I was in my room, being good, trying to sleep. They came in my room … they dragged me out of my bed and beat me. They had huge rocks in their hands and they hit my head and my body with them.”

An interpreter working for the Immigration Department, Azita Bokan, also said she saw asylum seekers with “massive head injuries” at the makeshift hospital and said she saw one patient with a slashed throat.