PORT MORESBY (AFP) – One of four people kidnapped in the highlands of Papua New Guinea was released yesterday, according to police, following days of negotiations with their captors.
The group of academics and guides were taken hostage at gunpoint on Sunday in a rugged and densely forested region.
“The release of one female Papua New Guinean captive is a positive outcome, and negotiations continue for the safe release of the remaining two female Papua New Guineans and the male New Zealand citizen,” Papua New Guinea Police Commissioner David Manning said.
“From the information that we have received, the remaining three captives are in reasonable health, though are being held in difficult terrain.”
The New Zealand hostage lives and works in Australia as a university professor, police said, and was previously wrongly identified as an Australian citizen.
