At least six people have died and 19 others have been injured in an attack by unidentified armed men on a public bus in the province of Enga, in eastern Papua New Guinea, local authorities confirmed this Wednesday.
“At around 4 p.m. (local time), a 30-seater bus was the victim of an ambush in Surinki. It is confirmed that six people died and 19 are in serious condition,” confirmed Police Chief David Manning. in statements to local media.
Manning has stated that investigators have begun looking into the case, but it is presumed that there was an ambush and that the bus was shot at by gunmen whose identity is not yet known.
A local councilor told Papuan New Guinean television EMTV that the men allegedly blocked the main road and signaled to the driver to stop, but he refused, at which point the men shot him. After losing control of the bus, they opened fire on the passengers.
After the shooting, he added, a local man drove the bus with the bodies and the wounded to the main hospital in the province, the Wabag General Hospital.
