About 65 civilians were injured in Wamena and five police officers were critically injured in Jayapura, he said.

Conflicts between indigenous Papuans and Indonesian security forces are common in the impoverished Papua region, a former Dutch colony in the western half of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia.

Television images showed orange flames and black smoke billowing from burning buildings in Wamena, and videos that circulated on the internet showed dozens of people, many armed with machetes, standing in front of shops and homes to protect them from the angry mob.

Chief Rodja said the unrest was precipitated by rumors that a high school teacher in Wamena, who is not from Papua, called an indigenous student a “monkey” last week.