The Good Friday shooting at the Manus Island detention centre was the work of “drunken” PNG soldiers, the regional police commander has said.

During the incident on Friday multiple shots were fired and projectiles thrown at the detention centre as an armed mob, including members of the Papua New Guinea defence force, stormed the facility.

The PNGDF said the incident was triggered by an altercation on a football field when asylum seekers refused to leave the ground as directed, and escalated after an officer was assaulted. Detainees have denied the claim.

Detainees and security personnel working at the centre confirmed multiple shots were fired, which could also be heard in a number of videos. Photographs shared on social media purportedly showed bullet holes in walls and windows.

The local police commander, Inspector David Yapu, said he had launched a full investigation into the “nasty” event which he blamed on drunken soldiers.

Yapu accused members of the PNGDF of “unethical and unacceptable behaviour”, shooting at the centre and assaulting staff and asylum seekers in retaliation for the alleged assault.

Yapu said the soldiers went on a rampage and assaulted his officers, PNG immigration officers, and other service providers, as well as targeting the centre and its detainee occupants. They also damaged vehicles and property, he said.

“The soldiers fired several gunshots on the air causing great fear and threats to the local and international community serving at the centre,” he said.

“A senior PNG immigration officer was seriously attacked and injured by the soldiers, [and] an asylum seeker, and were treated at International Health Medical Service at the centre and discharged.”

Relations between the police force and PNGDF have long been strained, but Yapu said a commanding officer from the Lobrum Naval base brought the situation under control promptly. While it was now quiet, the situation remained tense, he said.

The PNGDF chief of staff, Colonel Ray Numa, told the ABC initial internal investigations had been completed and a legal team from Port Moresby had been given two weeks to determine who was responsible for breaches of military and civil law.

The incident has added to tensions between local Manusians and the detainee population. Ronny Knight, the MP for Manus, rejected claims by asylum seekers and refugees that soldiers were aiming at “head height” rather than firing warning shots, and said they shouldn’t be surprised after assaulting an officer.

“There’s a hardcore group of these illegal immigrants that cause all these issues because they have failed all their chances at being declared as suitable candidates,” he wrote on Facebook.

A journalist detained at the Papua New Guinean immigration detention centre said the incident marked the first time Australian staff had been targeted in the same way as asylum seekers and refugees.



Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish Iranian journalist, said detainees were returning from the nearby town of Lorengau on a bus when they saw staff fleeing their accommodation.

Two female lawyers had been walking on the road when shooting began, and fled into the jungle, seeking safety with locals nearby, he said, and others who were caught outside also took shelter in the jungle for hours.

“Some officers told me that the soldiers put the guns directly to some Australian officers then shot into the air. The officers were shocked,” he said.

“Some staff who could not run away were sheltering in the rooms and some of them were hiding under beds. An Australian woman told me: ‘I have never experienced violence like that and it was the first time in my life that I heard gunshots.’ Another Australian woman was stuck in the immigration office and some soldiers attacked the office and tried to break the window.”

Boochani said the staff he spoke to were “seriously traumatised” by the event, and he’d been told many were leaving Manus and not returning.

“This incident proves that the Australian government and the companies working here cannot ensure safety not only for refugees, but also for Australian citizens. I think that for the first time those people who are working here could understand how hard it is for the refugees who are living under a situation like this for four years.”

Yapu said he was unaware of the specific incidents Bouchani described. Service provider, Broadspectrum, and the Australian department of immigration have been contacted with questions.

A letter signed by dozens of refugees and asylum seekers said they did not feel safe at the centre.

“To those who dragged and forced us to airplane from Christmas Island/Darwin and dropped us to Manus Island: We people have been detained on Manus Island for about four years against our will, are requesting to be moved to some safe place,” it said. “Everyone is terrified due to current attack by PNG defence forces by machine guns, our lives is in danger.”

Guardian Australia has obtained a voice recording of a man, apparently a PNG immigration officer, warning detainees not to walk around outside unnecessarily, telling them he will lock the gate if something should happen again.

The Human Rights Law Centre, the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce and Amnesty International have said the Good Friday shooting shows the centre is not safe and called for those detained to be brought to Australia while the US process continues.

The department of immigration has maintained no one from Manus Island will be brought to Australia.