TIMIKA - FIVE police officers were wounded on Wednesday in a battle with gunmen near a US-owned gold mine in Indonesia's Papua province, a police source said.

The firefight broke out as police patrolled a road where three people including an Australian mine technician were killed in ambushes over the weekend, the source said, requesting anonymity.

'The latest information is that five policemen were wounded in this afternoon's incident,' the source told AFP, raising the number of wounded from two earlier.

All of the officers received bullet wounds, including one who was shot in the stomach.

The gunfight broke out as the police were conducting a patrol ahead of a visit by high-ranking officials.

The road links the coastal town of Timika to the massive Grasberg mine about 65 kilometres to the north. The mine is owned by the local subsidiary of US giant Freeport McMoRan.

A spokesman for Freeport Indonesia said he had heard reports of the firefight but had no further details.

The battle broke out hours after Freeport Indonesia ordered hundreds of its workers not to travel along the road from Timika to the mine due to security fears. -- AFP