Police Fire On Crowd In Indonesia`s Papua, 3 Hurt

`They wanted to destroy a district police office and ignored a warning shot, so we shot several of them,` the police chief said.

Three people in Indonesia's Papua province were wounded after police opened fire on a crowd of several thousand trying to attack a police building in the city of Timika, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

Bagus Eko Danto, Papua police chief, said the wounded suffered gunshot wounds in the legs and that the trouble had broken out after a clash between police and a migrant group living in Timika two days ago.

"They wanted to destroy a district police office and ignored a warning shot, so we shot several of them," the police chief said by telephone, adding the three wounded were being treated in hospital.

Timika is the nearest town to the giant Grasberg copper mine, run by the local unit of U.S. mining firm Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.