Arrows fired in market clash

PORT MORESBY – A man had an arrow fired into his eye socket after a tribal fight in the suburbs of Papua New Guinea’s capital this week.

PNG police said several other people were injured by arrows during a clash between rival tribal groups from Chimbu and Goroka, who have migrated from the country’s Highlands to Port Moresby.

Reports say that Chimbu people earlier bashed up a Goroka man because of disagreements about the ownership of the market.

The attack using bows and arrows came as a pay back the next day.

“One of these victims has an arrow tip still in his eye and is awaiting emergency operation at the moment,” Superintendent Silas Wayagure, head of operations with National Capital District police, told the ABC.

“It was a long distance shot but somehow it got him in the eye and went through.”

Police said the fight started on Monday when Chimbu youths assaulted a man from Goroka at Six Mile market.

Around dawn the next morning, a group of ethnic Goroka residents armed themselves with bows and arrows and attacked the Chimbu people.

The clash occurred about a kilometre from the capital’s international airport.

Eight people were treated for arrow injuries at Port Moresby’s General Hospital and discharged but two remain in hospital, including the Chimbu man impaled with the arrow.

“When they remove it, whether he will survive or not is something I can not say. They are saying he is a 50-50 chance of surviving,” Superintendent Wayagure said.

Senior police have tried to calm the “warring parties” but the situation remained tense.

The Chimbu clan are not cooperating with police and are believed to be planning a payback killing if their clansman does not survive the operation to remove the arrow.