MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — At least 26 people were killed by a gang in three remote villages in Papua New Guinea’s north and eight villagers remained missing Friday in the latest violence in the South Pacific island nation relating to contested land ownership and sorcery allegations, officials said.

“It was a very terrible thing … when I approached the area, I saw that there were children, men, women. They were killed by a group of 30 young men,” the acting police commander in East Sepik province, James Baugen, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Friday.

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