Jakarta: Gunmen on Tuesday shot dead four road workers in Indonesia's Papua, police said, the latest deadly violence in the insurgency-hit eastern province.
The unidentified gunmen ambushed a group of seven civilian workers who were paving a road in the remote and mountainous Sinak area of Puncak district, local police chief Paulus Waterpauw told AFP.
"Three were shot dead at the scene, and another died later," he said. One worker was found alive while two others were missing, he added.
Police did not specify which group was behind the attack. Separatists usually target security forces, but on occasion attack and kidnap Indonesian and foreign workers in the province.
Waterpauw said more police would be sent to the area on Wednesday to hunt the attackers.
In December gunmen raided a police post in Sinak, shooting dead three officers and stealing weapons in the worst attack on security forces in Papua since 2013.
In February 2013 suspected members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) killed eight soldiers in one of the most serious assaults on security forces in the region's recent history.
Jakarta has long kept a tight grip on resource-rich Papua with a heavy military and police presence. But a low-level insurgency continues, with the OPM fighting on behalf of the mostly ethnically Melanesian population.
AFP