More than two dozen killed in fresh Papua unrest

WAMENA, Indonesia - At least 26 people have been killed in fresh unrest in Indonesia's Papua region, authorities said on Tuesday, as thousands fled to shelters following a day of violence that saw victims burned alive in buildings set ablaze by protesters.

Papua, on the western half of New Guinea Island, has been gripped by weeks of violent protests fueled by anger over racism. Hundreds of furious protesters on Monday torched homes and other buildings in the province's cities of Wamena and Waena during a rally sparked by rumors that a high school teacher insulted students with racist words. Police have disputed that account as a "hoax".

Twenty-two people died in Wamena where hundreds had demonstrated and burned down a government office and other buildings on Monday, with some victims perishing in deliberately set fires, authorities said, as they upped the death toll from a previous 20 and said more than 70 were injured.

Nearly 700 people had been rounded up for questioning over the deadly riots, the military said.

"Some (people) were burned, some were hacked to death, ... some were trapped in fires," local military commander Chandra Dianto said.

" (We're) going to scour the debris to look for more possible victims in shops and stalls that were set on fire," he added.

Most victims in Wamena were non-Papuans, authorities said, threatening an escalation in violence against migrants from other parts of the Pacific archipelago.

Most of the recent clashes have been between separatist protesters and Indonesian security forces.

A soldier and three civilians also died in the provincial capital Jayapura, where security forces and stone-throwing protesters clashed on Monday. The soldier was stabbed to death, while three students died from rubber bullet wounds, authorities said, without elaborating.

Colonel Eko Daryanto, military spokesman in the Papua Province, said local authorities are investigating the cause of the casualties, combing and checking the government office buildings, shop buildings, and others, which were burned during the protest. "So there is a possibility that the number of casualties will ratchet up," Eko said.

More than 4,000 residents, including mothers and their children, have fled to military and police posts, government buildings and a local church to seek shelter, according to authorities.

"There are many women and elderly people, mostly migrants," said Yudi, an Indonesian businessman and Wamena resident, who was staying at a local shelter after his wife left Papua for security reasons on Tuesday.

"There are local Papuans who helped protect migrants by hiding them in their homes, but when word got out their houses were also targeted.

"Wamena is destroyed," he added.

Weeks of protests broke out across Papua and in other parts of Indonesia after the mid-August arrest and tear-gassing of dozens of Papuan students, who were also racially abused, in the country's second-biggest city, Surabaya.