Detainee on the run after escaping immigration detention while visiting Perth temple

Authorities are searching for a person who escaped immigration detention while visiting a Buddhist temple in Perth.

Police and Department of Immigration and Border Protection staff are searching for the detainee, a department spokesperson said. 

"The Department assures the Australian community that it takes incidents like this very seriously," the department said in a statement.

The spokesperson declined to comment on the detainee's personal circumstances, except for stating that "the detainee is not an illegal maritime arrival."

The detainee reportedly escaped from a mini-bus in Kenwick, in Perth's south-east.

With AAP.