A DISPUTE over a pot of rice has cost the life of a Grade 7 student in Madang.
Beon Correctional Services officer Mark White said the student and his friends had held up youths from Sisiak village at gun point and ran away with a pot of rice they had.
The village youths however followed them and sought the assistance of others to catch the student and his mates who had fled into the bush.
Mark said one of the student’s mates, who was holding a gun, turned and fired at the youths chasing them. But the shot hit the student who later died.
Police could not be contacted for a comment on the incident.
“This hold-up incident is one of the hundreds that happen there,” White said.
“Users of the Sisiak, Furan, Beon, Panim and Brahim roads fall victims (to these hold-ups),” he said.
“The worst (affected) are the Seventh-Day Adventist church-run school teachers, students and missions workers at Panim.”
He said the youths from Sisiak often stopped vehicles at gunpoint to rob people.
Madang police have also charged a 26-year-old man for killing his wife, the mother of their infant, on Monday at Amele village outside Madang.
The National