PORT MORESBY: At least eight people have died after major rioting and unrest hit Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby.
Shops and cars were set on fire and supermarkets looted after police went on strike over a pay dispute. Hundreds had taken to the streets on Wednesday.
In the aftermath, Prime Minister James Marape addressed the nation saying lawlessness would not be tolerated.
“Breaking the law does not achieve certain outcomes,” he told the public on Thursday.
The army has been deployed to restore order and while most of the the riots had died down by Wednesday night, Marape acknowledged: “It’s still tense out there”.
A local official had earlier said that the looting had largely been carried out by “opportunists”.
“We have seen unprecedented level of strife in our city, something that has never happened before in the history of our city and our country,” National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop said in a radio address on Wednesday, according to a Reuters report.
He had confirmed that “some people sadly lost their life today” though he did not give a number of dead.
The Port Moresby General Hospital had confirmed eight deaths, regional media reported.
The violence had also spread outside the capital – another seven people died in the city of Lae, local police said. The extent of violence in the second-largest city of Papua New Guinea was unclear.
(BBC)
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