11 Sep 2007

Man killed in PNG Kokoda attack

3:22 pm on 11 September 2007

A young man has been killed and another seriously injured on Papua New Guinea's Kokoda Track in what is believed to be an attack fuelled by tribal rivalry.

Police were flying into the village of Efogi to investigate Saturday's incident in which four local men allegedly attacked a group of young Papua New Guineans walking the 96-kilometre track.

The attack follows a separate incident on Friday in which a member of an Anglican bishops' fundraising team died after falling over and hitting his head near Alola.

The Kokoda Track Authority chief executive officer Warren Bartlett says four males and two females, aged in their teens and early 20s, were confronted on Saturday morning by four men armed with a gun and bush knives at Brigade Hill.

He says one young man in the walking party was killed and at least one other seriously injured.