JAKARTA, Indonesia – 19 people were killed inside a nightclub residing in the country’s West Papua province after a clash broke out between 2 community groups that burned the building.
“Police: Fire, clash at nightclub kill 19 people in Indonesia”, a Tweet posted on Jan 25.
Both the groups involved in the clash attack their rival groups with arrows, machetes, and Molotov cocktails, reported Ahmad Ramadhan, National Police representative, in a press conference.
Among the 19 dead bodies, one was a member of one of the groups that attacked each other. The corpses were found on Monday night when the fire broke out at the nightclub.
The Monday night clash was followed by a previous conflict between the same groups on Saturday night due to a misunderstanding, revealed by city police Chief Ary Nyoto Setiawan.
“We called them and mediated them but they continued the clash until late night,” said Setiawan.
When the clash broke out among the groups, the authorities ordered them to evacuate the club. However, later, firefighters retrieved 18 dead bodies from a room inside the building. The police are currently investigating the case to determine whether the fire was accidental or set by someone from the group members.
