Report of students killed in PNG protest

Papua New Guinea's Parliament has been told that four people have been killed and seven injured after police opened fire on a group of protesting university students, the ABC reports.

Police opened fire on the students as they were planning to march from their campus to parliament to demand Prime Minister Peter O'Neill face corruption allegations, a provincial governor says.

The ABC quoted a student, Gerald Peni, saying police fired shots directly into the crowd when students would not let them arrest the president of the student council.

A major aid agency said it had information from the university clinic that at least 15 students were wounded, with four killed.

Port Moresby General Hospital said 10 students had been admitted. "They are in a difficult situation," the admissions officer said.

Thousands of students at the University of Papua New Guinea in the capital of Port Moresby have been protesting and boycotting classes for weeks amid growing political unrest in the Pacific island nation.

The Governor of Oro Province Gary Juffa, a critic of the O'Neill Government, said on Twitter that he had spoken directly with students at the protest. "Informed that several were shot," Juffa said, adding that the incident started with an argument between a metropolitan police superintendent and a student.

- Reuters