Three youths are in police custody after allegedly setting fire and causing "extensive" damage to a section of a troubled youth detention centre.
Police and emergency services were alerted to reports three armed youths had set fire to part of the Ashley Youth Detention Centre, about 50km west of Launceston, on Sunday afternoon.
The trio were found unarmed in an outside area before they were taken into police custody, Tasmania Police said.
No one was injured during the incident.
Fire crews have remained on scene to extinguish the fire, but police said damage to a centre building was extensive.
A Tasmanian institutionalised child sexual abuse inquiry, which delivered its final report in 2023, recommended the Ashley Youth Detention Centre be closed as soon as possible.
It said the centre posed a live child sexual abuse risk.
But the facility's closure date has been repeatedly pushed back while a replacement is built and is currently set for early 2028.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
