PNG police fire on student protesters, four reported dead

Rioting, looting and gunshots erupted in the capital of Papua New Guinea on Wednesday after police opened fire on a student demonstration, wounding about a dozen people and killing as many as four, officials and residents said. A groundswell of political unrest has surged in the island nation, just to Australia’s north, in recent weeks amid calls for Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to resign over corruption allegations. People in Port Moresby reported police firing on the public and using tear gas to disperse crowds during a protest at the University of PNG’s Waigani campus.

I know that students have been shot, but we’re still trying to determine whether there have been deaths and how many have been injured.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop

Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported that a Papua New Guinea lawmaker told Parliament that four students had been killed and seven wounded. “Now there is a very big clash with the public and with the police just outside the Port Moresby General Hospital,” a hospital official told Reuters after a group of wounded students were taken there for treatment. “There is also shooting going on, open gunfire." Joe Duhube, personal assistant to lawmaker Gary Juffa, told The Associated Press that Juffa spoke to students after the shooting and was told "one of the students got killed instantly and others are in serious and critical condition.”

There was a lot of force that was used on students. Students were pushed and shoved. They were beaten up. There were gunshots.

Waliagai Olewale, a reporter at the local National Broadcasting Corp

Port Moresby