The Papua Regional Police stated that the riot that occurred in Elelim, Yalimo Regency, Papua Mountains resulted in eight people being injured.
"The eight injured people consisted of five members of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) and the Indonesian National Police (Polri) and three local residents," said Head of Public Relations of the Papua Regional Police, Senior Commissioner Cahyo Sukarnito.
Apart from that, he said, the riots also resulted in 30 kiosks and residents' houses reportedly being burned down.
He said that from the reports he received, the riot also caused 13 motorbikes to be engulfed in flames, and one operational car belonging to the Yalimo Police was badly damaged, as well as six dormitory houses and one dormitory for Yalimo Police officers being burned.
The riot that occurred in Elelim, said Cahyo, started from a dispute between students at Elelim Senior High School.
Initially, during the learning process, one of the AB students allegedly made a statement that offended his friend who was also a student in the class.
"That statement triggered a reaction from several students who then beat AB," he said.
Efforts to resolve the problem were made in the teachers' lounge, but the tension did not subside, causing a number of students and members of the public who were provoked by the remarks to also attack AB, and they even attacked the teacher who tried to break it up.
The mob then set fire to a kiosk that allegedly belonged to AB's parents, which spread to the officers' dormitory and the Yalimo Police dormitory which were nearby and various buildings in Elelim.
