Three bystanders have been killed and a small child was wounded when separatist fighters in Indonesia's Papua province opened fire on a small plane bringing in security personnel ahead of regional elections due later this week.
Colonel Muhammad Aidi, the army's spokesman in Papua province, said two people, including the pilot, were also injured in the attack, which occurred after the plane landed at Kenyam airport in remote Nduga district.
"The plane was carrying 15 mobile brigade officers tasked with safeguarding the local election," Aidi said.
Voting will take place across Indonesia on Wednesday but security personnel are on high alert in Papua, where a long-running independence struggle has often turned violent.
Indonesia took control of Papua following a widely criticised UN-backed referendum in 1969, six years after the end of Dutch colonial rule.
Under Indonesian rule, indigenous Papuans have been largely shut out of their region's economic activity, which is dominated by extraction of natural resources by Indonesian and foreign companies including the giant US-owned Grasberg gold and copper mine.
Local media reported that the airline Trigana Air confirmed the incident.
"We also received reports that a shoot-out is taking place and so we cannot rescue the crew and the passengers yet," a spokesman said.
