JAKARTA, Indonesia — Gunmen in the remote Indonesian province of Papua have killed as many as 31 construction workers who were brought from a distant island to help build a major highway, officials said Tuesday.

The police attributed the attacks to separatists who have long pushed for an independent Papua, The Associated Press reported. But there were few details of the killings, which were said to have begun on Sunday with the shooting of 24 workers.

Indonesia’s public works minister, Basuki Hadimuljono, told reporters on Tuesday that work on the highway would be halted while the authorities investigated the killings in the district of Nduga, a mountainous area near the center of the province.

Police officers and soldiers were attempting to reach the area where the attacks were reported to have occurred.