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Security tightened in Papua after nine killed in riot
More than 200 security personnel, including police and the military, had been deployed to contain the situation after 14 people had also been hurt in Thursday's riot, police said.
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An Indonesian military ambulance evacuates the body of a soldier in Wamena, Papua province on December 5, 2018, who was killed after coming under rebel gunfire while investigating reports that construction workers had been shot dead by separatist rebels in Nduga. - Indonesian soldiers hunted on December 5 for rebels suspected of killing as many as 24 construction workers in restive Papua province, as an eyewitness account supplied by the military described a grisly mass execution. (AFP/Joseph Situmorang)
S
ecurity forces tightened security in Wamena, Papua, after nine people were killed during a riot triggered by rumours a child had been kidnapped, an official said on Friday.
More than 200 security personnel, including police and the military, had been deployed to contain the situation after 14 people had also been hurt in Thursday's riot, police said.
The situation remained tense, but there had been no further violence, Papua province police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo said.
The riot had started after locals, angered by rumours about a child kidnapping, started throwing rocks at Wamena police station where a man accused of abducting a six-year-old was detained, he said.
Police summoned the child's parents to clarify that she was safe, but that failed to stem the violence and other buildings were set ablaze in the area, he added.
Security forces responded by opening fire, killing nine people and wounding 14, said Benny.
Tensions have been running high in Papua, which is one of the poorest, most underdeveloped parts of the country, after separatist rebels abducted a New Zealand pilot.
The Indonesian military has said it was prepared to conduct a "law enforcement operation" as a last resort to free the pilot if negotiations failed to secure his release.
