Tensions on Manus Island had been building for days. On Sunday night, asylum seekers at the detention centre were told that if they were not found to be a refugee, neither the Australian nor Papua New Guinea governments would help them resettle in Papua New Guinea. So far, not one of the 1340 asylum seekers has had their refugee application processed.

Within hours, 35 people had escaped the centre, allegedly wielding bedposts as weapons in protest against the news. By the time the unrest was quelled, 19 asylum seekers were injured.

By Monday afternoon, asylum seekers claimed they were in fear of attack. Refugee advocate Ian Rintoul, based in Australia, says he was told by would-be refugees that they were being threatened by locals and Papua New Guinean authorities.

At 9pm, some detainees had locked themselves into a telephone room to plead for help from Amnesty, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Australian government and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, saying that they feared for their lives.

''They are injuring us … please, if you are the office for asylum seekers, please contact someone, or the media or anyone,'' an asylum seeker pleaded on the phone, in a voicemail heard by Fairfax Media left with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. ''We are not here by choice. The government brought us here by force. We are not even fighting them, we are running away from them.''

The male asylum seeker, who did not identify himself, said: ''The PNG guys, they attacked us before they switched off the electricity and then they attacked us with stones … they are armed.

''They broke down everything and they injured many, many of the transferees in this compound.''

At about the same time, a spokesman from Immigration Minister Scott Morrison's office told a journalist at Fairfax Radio, who had heard of a second incident and contacted his office, that any information about a second attack on Monday was ''completely untrue'' and that they should be ''more sceptical of stories coming from activists''.

At 9.09pm, a man claiming to be a Lebanese asylum seeker detained in Manus, wrote in a Facebook message that the violence had started again.

''Tonight, polices and g4s attack us again,'' they wrote. ''Many peoples in the yard. Injure please we need one to help us. May be till morning they will kill us. We are human or animals.''

Then, at 11.40pm, asylum seeker Ghulam Mustasa from Pakistan rang his brother claiming the locals had come inside the compound as it had become dark.

''My brother was inside,'' he said. ''He said 'I am covered in blood' and a stone hit his head.

''He said 'they will kill us'. He was in the compound saying 'I am going to run away to save my life'.''

By early Tuesday morning, two more shots had been fired by Papua New Guinean police, one asylum seeker had been killed, one had been shot and more than 77 people lay bloodied, cut and shot.