16 Sep 2013

Bandit attack victims set up trust for PNG porters

7:56 pm on 16 September 2013

Some of the victims of a bandit attack in Papua New Guinea's Morobe province last week have established a trust to help the local survivors pay their medical costs.

Three local porters were killed when several men brandishing machetes attacked the group, which included trekkers from Australia and New Zealand, some of whom also sustained injuries.

Queenslander Nick Bennett says PNG doesn't have an adequate health and welfare system to help the porters cope and recover from their ordeal.

"The injuries that they've received are horrendous. They've been hacked around the calves and across the leg, which means they wont be able to do what they've been doing - they wont be able to work.

"And the fact is that they've been waiting so long for treatment that the potential for septicaemia is very high."

Mr Bennett says the people of Morobe were lovely and Papua New Guinea is also a victim of the incident.

PNG police has confirmed that four of the six suspected bandits have been arrested.