A riot at the Melbourne Youth Justice Centre has ended peacefully after 17 hours, as emergency services leave the juvenile jail.

Emergency services moved in on a group of about 20 detainees on Monday morning.

More than 40 inmates were involved at the juvenile jail at Parkville overnight, the second riot at the facility in as many days.

Property was damaged and the centre’s fire alarms were also set off.

Ambulance officers entered the facility as a precaution, but no one was injured in the incident.

Police said half of the inmates were returned to their cells as part of an ongoing operation but about 20 remained in an inaccessible part of the facility.

Multiple crews from Victoria Police’s Public Order Response unit are on the scene. Photo: ABC

Victorian Minister for Families and Children Jenny Mikakos said a “significant number” of the inmates would be temporarily transferred to an adult prison while the damaged facility was “strengthened”.

“We are taking the legal steps now to ensure that a number of these offenders will be transferred to an adult correctional facility.”

Ms Mikakos said the infrastructure at the centre was letting the community down and the facility would be redeveloped.

“In response to this particular incident over the weekend, we have had some property damage at the Parkville facility which has meant that we have lost some operational capacity within that facility,” she said.

The first prisoners were transferred late on Monday afternoon.

They were heard pounding on the walls of the white prison van and screaming obscenities as they passed a group of journalists.