Pac:Police demolish settlement where 3 die in Origin violence
26 Jun 2009 9:24 PM
PORT MORESBY, June 26 AAP - Papua New Guinea police have demolished a settlement where three people were killed in State of Origin-related violence.
Heavily armed police escorted two bulldozers into the Five Mile settlement in Port Moresby, pulling down shops, bars and trees along a one-kilometre stretch of the main street, the ABC has reported.
Three Papua New Guineans - two of them university students - were killed in the area after State of Origin football celebrations turned violent on Wednesday.
PNG police told AAP that drunken violence in three different locations on Wednesday night caused the deaths.
Both PNG's national newspapers, the National and the Post Courier, reported that Manuel Ruing, the 21-year-old son of a Highlands region MP, Puri Ruing, was among the dead.
A car was torched and fights in settlements were reported after Queensland's historic victory - its fourth in a row.
Police would not comment on tape, but an officer said settlers were living in the area illegally and people were selling alcohol without liquor licences, the ABC reported.
But residents said they were being unfairly targeted and they would take the police to court.
The city's public hospital was also filled with people injured in post-match fights between Queensland and NSW supporters.
State of Origin is a highlight of the year for most Papua New Guineans, where rugby league is the national sport.
Fierce competition between blues and maroons supporters had led to violence in previous years.
AAP cdh/ldj
