Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Mount Hagen police in PNG is on high alert

Posted at 22:43 on 27 October, 2008 UTC

The Mount Hagen Police in Papua New Guinea is on high alert after receiving threats of a possible attack on its headquaters.

Police say they’ve received calls about a plan to raid the police station and blow up a container inside it holding ballot papers for the governor’s election.

This comes just days after the provincial headquaters, the Kapal House, was burned down.

Five people have been arrested and charged with arson for that attack.

Police spokesperson, Superintendent Dominic Kakas, says it’s unclear if the threat is politically motivated and if the two incidents are linked.

“Police are on alert. There’ve been a number of threats issued and we’re not taking them lightly. So we’ve set up a joint operation up in the western highlands province. We’re investigating and hopefully we’ll reveal something.”

Dominic Kakas says it’s unclear who could be behind it.