Clashes broke out in Australia's outback town of Alice Springs as locals surrounded a hospital treating the suspected killer of a five-year-old Indigenous girl, police said on Friday.

Two officers, two ambulance workers and a firefighter were injured, police said, with media images showing teargas in the air, a police van in flames and crowds yelling at armed officers.

The overnight violence followed the discovery of a body south of Alice Springs believed to be that of the little girl, referred to at her family's request as Kumanjayi Little Baby.

"Everyone was holding out hope that there would be a different outcome to this," Northern Territory police force commissioner Martin Dole told public broadcaster ABC.

"So when we made that discovery yesterday – absolutely devastating for everybody involved, not just the police officers but the whole community."

The child had disappeared from an Indigenous community camp called Old Timers late on Saturday night, sparking a vast search on foot, horseback and by helicopter that gripped much of the country.

A formal autopsy is to be held on the body, found about five kilometres from the camp where she was last seen.

Hours after the body was found, police announced they had arrested a suspect, Jefferson Lewis.

Lewis had turned himself in to Indigenous community members at camp by Alice Springs and was beaten until he was unconscious, Dole said.

"We had several calls that he was being assaulted at that time, and we turned up and intervened in that assault and took him into custody," he said.

"At that time, he was unconscious."

About 200 people turned on police and ambulance crews who extracted Lewis and took him to the Alice Springs hospital, Dole said.

Hundreds of "angry people" later gathered outside the hospital and tried to get in, he said.

"We deployed all of the police resources available to that Alice Springs hospital... and nobody got to him."

Many people outside the hospital shouted that Lewis must face "payback", the ABC reported, referring to a traditional punishment in central Australian Indigenous communities.

Police transported Lewis to police custody in the Northern Territory capital of Darwin for his safety, Dole said, with charges expected to be laid in the coming days. (AFP)




Edited by Robert Kemp