Police are struggling to control what may be Victoria's largest-ever prison riot at Melbourne's Metropolitan Remand Centre.
Riot police and critical incident officers wearing Kevlar body armour and carrying tear gas and high-powered firearms have failed to end the riot, apparently sparked by a ban on smoking in Victorian prisons due to take effect on Wednesday.
Fires burned well into the evening inside the maximum security prison complex at Ravenhall in Melbourne's west.
Shouts and raucous laughter could be heard at one point as police, corrections officers and firefighters milled outside.
Cell fires also broke out at the nearby Port Phillip prison and the Dame Phyllis Frost women's prison on Tuesday afternoon, but both were quickly contained.
Inmates had warned family and friends that all hell was about to break loose at the remand centre amid rising tensions over the smoking ban.
That proved the case about midday when about 200 staff were evacuated as prisoners breached a secure inner perimeter and masked inmates armed with sticks smashed windows, bashed doors and lit fires at the Ravenhall maximum security facility.
Corrections Commissioner Jan Shuard says the smoking ban may have sparked the riot, but the exact cause is being investigated.
"The situation is still being managed," she told reporters on Tuesday night.
"Until we can have a full debrief on it, we won't know how this got to this stage."
Ms Shuard was unable to confirm how many inmates were involved, or if rival gangs were fighting each other, but said there were no reports of injuries to prisoners or staff.
"We've got a large proportion of the prison locked down now, but we still have too many out and until we have them all under control the numbers are hard to determine."
The dog squad and armed officers have been going in and several volleys of small explosions, possibly discharges of tear gas, could be heard outside the prison walls.
Two helicopters circled the skies over the remand centre well into the night.
The Herald Sun is reporting it understands some inmates reached the prison's control room and that a water cannon was used to subdue some rioting prisoners.
Ms Shuard said the perimeter was secure and there was no threat to public safety.
A former prisoner of the remand centre named David says inmates are prepared to riot or go on a hunger strike for a smoke.
"I spoke to a prisoner in custody last night and he said that basically all hell's going to break loose, prisoners will riot, they'll even starve, etc, until the prison officers give them back their tobacco," David told 3AW on Tuesday.
"Ten years (ago) they tried this and it lasted about 30 minutes until the prisoners started rioting and they ended up giving them their tobacco back."
Another man, Murray, whose bikie son is in the remand centre, told 3AW that rival gangs and the smoking ban had made the prison tense.
"He said that trouble was brewing and there was a lot of unrest," Murray said.
The centre houses inmates awaiting trial or those who have appealed convictions.
A number of high-profile prisoners are believed to be housed in the centre including terror-accused teens Sevdet Besim and Harun Causevic, and former Bandidos enforcer Toby Mitchell, who is understood to be in isolation.
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