Police say 31 dead, 1 missing in Papua attacks

Security forces are trying to recover the bodies of 31 workers who were killed in one of the worst separatist attacks in Indonesia's restive Papua province.

Papua police spokesman Suryadi Diaz said Tuesday that 24 construction workers were killed Sunday when gunmen stormed a government bridge construction project in a mountainous village in Nduga district.

Diaz said eight other workers fled to the nearby house of a local parliament member, but an armed group came a day later and killed seven of them. The eighth managed to escape and remains missing.

He said security forces were trying to recover all 31 bodies but they were scattered and guarded by gunmen in the district, a stronghold of separatists who have battled Indonesian rule in the impoverished region for nearly 50 years.

DailyBangladesh/Prince