Armed raid kills 3 at Papua New Guinea logging camp

PORT MORESBY - A heavily armed group has killed at least three people and injured several more at a logging camp on Papua New Guinea's Bougainville island, police and local government officials said.

The group attacked the camp in Tonolei - in the south of the self-governing region of Bougainville - on Wednesday, the island's authorities said in a statement.

Police said their officers were still unable to access the logging camp on Monday, which has been occupied by the armed group.

"The early morning assault claimed the lives of two locals as well as an expatriate who were based at the site of the Tonolei Integrated Agricultural Project," the Autonomous Bougainville Government said.

Bougainville police chief Francis Tokura told AFP that a Malaysian national was among those killed.

Several others were missing, Papua New Guinea media said.

The motivation for the attack remains unclear, but government officials called for calm between groups involved in the violence.

Papua New Guinea's Post Courier newspaper said around 50 men had entered the camp on Wednesday and began shooting at workers.

Land disputes have previously triggered violence in the area, the paper said. AFP

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