SIX Vietnamese youths who were found cowering under a bunkbed in Whitehead detention camp's burnt-out Section Seven almost nine hours after a fire were being questioned by police last night.
The six, hauled from their smoky hide-out by camp guards, were arrested with three others following an attempt to burn down the huts where riot police used tear-gas last week.
A Correctional Services Department (CSD) spokesman said the nine, including a 13-year-old, had scaled double barbed-wire fences to set fire to blankets and clothing left by evacuated detainees on Thursday.
Fire teams wearing breathing apparatus battled to put out the flames from about 3.30 am to 4.15 am. Soon after, CSD guards arrested two men in Section Seven and a third man later gave himself up.
Yesterday afternoon clean-up staff were removing blankets, clothes and ashes from the blackened hut when they discovered the others.
The pre-dawn arson raid set the scene for a tense weekend of demonstrations, intimidation and bravado in Hong Kong's detention camps.
''I think the motive was to show defiance,'' a CSD spokesman said.