As the immigration department moved to reassure teenage asylum seekers on Nauru about their safety, chairs and tables were thrown about in a disturbance at the detention centre on the remote Pacific island.
The department says asylum seekers threw chairs, tables and other objects at detention centre staff during the disturbance on Wednesday night.
Seven staff were injured while attempting to restore order and protect other residents, transferees and staff from injury, a spokesman said.
Claims that women and children were assaulted by security staff were false, he said.
However the Refugee Action Coalition says guards hit several teenagers after the group received a written response from the department to their complaints about conditions at the centre and the poor quality of education facilities.
"Your safety and wellbeing is important to the governments of Nauru and Australia," the department's Nauru program co-ordinator wrote.
They were also told the education they were receiving on Nauru was similar to that offered in Australia and followed the Queensland state curriculum.
The letter also urged refugees to apply for resettlement in Cambodia or return to their country of origin.
Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul claims a woman was pushed over in the fracas and suffered a heart attack while another woman swallowed washing powder in the aftermath of the protest.
Both were receiving treatment.
Nauru police attended the centre but no arrests were made.
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