Dozens injured, 4 dead in riots across PNG
Dozens of people are wounded and four reported killed in Papua New Guinea after police open fire on a student demonstration in the capital and riots erupted across the country.
Clashes erupted in the capital Port Moresby on Wednesday as more than 1,000 students prepared to march from their campus to parliament, where the premier was due to face a no confidence vote.
Students have boycotted their classes at the University of PNG for a month, asking O’Neil to resign because of corruption allegations.
A groundswell of political unrest has surged in the island nation, just to Australia's north, in recent weeks amid calls for O'Neill to resign over corruption allegations.
Noel Anjo Kolao, an anti-corruption campaigner who organized the demonstration, said police had blocked roads and pointed their guns at students.
"Then they started shooting at them," Kolao said.
PNG media and one international aid agency said a clinic at the university had reported up to four students had been killed, although there was no confirmation.
"Now there is a very big clash with the public and with the police just outside the Port Moresby General Hospital," a hospital official, quoted by the Reuters news agency, said.
Papua New Guinea was ranked as one of the most corrupt states in the world in 2012.
In 2014, a national anti-corruption watchdog accused O’Neil of corruption and issued an arrest warrant for him. He, however, has refused to comply with the warrant.
The premier disbanded the watchdog, dismissed the police commissioner and his attorney general and suspended a number of police and justice department officials.
Police have been investigating whether O’Neil authorized millions of dollars in illegal payment to a national law firm.
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