Six prisoners have been injured at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after battling guards with makeshift weapons.

Military officials said on Friday that the clash erupted on Thursday, the same day two detainees attempted suicide in other parts of the camp.

The battle was one of the most violent incidents reported at the isolated prison, where the US holds about 460 men suspected of links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Most of the detainees have been held for more than four years without charge.

In the early evening, guards had spotted a detainee in Camp Four, a medium security, communal-living unit for the "most compliant" prisoners, apparently preparing to hang himself with a bed sheet tied to the ceiling of the room he shared with nine detainees.

Army Colonel Michael Bumgarner said that the detainees, who had made the floor slippery with faeces, urine and soapy water, attacked 10 members of Guantanamo's quick-reaction force with fan blades, pieces of metal and broken light fixtures when the team went to investigate.

For several minutes the detainees appeared to have the upper hand, knocking some of the soldiers to the ground in the struggle, Bumgarner said.

Outside, Guantanamo officials mustered 100 more guards before the force gained control using pepper spray, physical force, five blasts of a shotgun that fires rubber pellets and one shot from a non-lethal weapon that Bumgarner said fires a sponge-like projectile.

Detainees in two other units of Camp Four began damaging security cameras, light fixtures and other items in their rooms in a show of support for those engaged in the melee, officials said.

Six detainees had minor injuries and no guards were injured, Harris said. The prisoners involved were moved to a higher security area.

The authorities did not provide the names or home countries of those involved.

PHOTO CAPTION

A US Army soldier walks through a cell block at Camp Delta at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, in 2004. (AFP)