Papua New Guinea's police force has deployed extra personnel to quell unrest in the northern province of Madang.
Papua New Guinea police. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
Officers from the Special Response Unit, as well as a Mobile Squad team, today dispatched to Madang's capital.
This followed clashes near Madang's town area on Friday which according to local media left three people dead and a policeman critically injured.
The unrest has been linked to festering tensions between settler groups who belong to different provinces.
After Friday's clashes escalated, various other attacks took place in the area, and Madang town has reportedly been in shutdown since Friday.
With local police struggling to cope with the situation, reinforcements have come from the nearby city of Lae.
According to Loop PNG, Friday's clashes were sparked by the killing and decapitation of a man from Southern Highlands in Madang earlier last week.
This prompted the man's relative and community members to set up roadblocks on the main road into Madang before launching attacks on other groups accused of involvement in the man's death.
