The Australian professor was conducting a field study with three female researchers when a group of armed men abducted them, took them to a secret location and demanded money for their release.
An Australian professor and his three Papua New Guinean colleagues who are being held hostage in the PNG highlands were "sighted by chance" by the armed group who took them.He is an Australian resident and New Zealand citizen employed by an Australian universityPNG Police say the criminals are "opportunists" who are demanding a ransom for the release of the researchers.
The country's Police Commissioner David Manning said "specialised security force personnel will use whatever means necessary" including lethal force to secure the release of the hostages. "These are opportunists that have obviously not thought this situation through before they acted, and have been asking for cash to be paid," Mr Manning said.
The missionaries have spoken with the professor via a satellite phone and have been trying to help with negotiations. "The news has already been spread out, so now the people from each of the villages are trying to get into the forest and trying to trace them and find them." "I think this is the first time a ransom is attached to a hostage in a situation like this and we're treating it very seriously," he said.
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