Police unhappy about vigilante hunt for PNG bandits

VILLAGERS on PNG's remote Black Cat trail have set off to hunt down the armed gang who killed two guides.

Survivors of the PNG attack

VILLAGERS on Papua New Guinea's remote Black Cat trail have set off to hunt down the armed gang who killed two guides accompanying a trekking group as Australian survivors told of searing scenes of butchery and bravery.

The trekkers were flown yesterday from Port Moresby to Cairns, where Peter Stevens, one of several former soldiers in the group who lives in Melbourne's northeast, told reporters: "The first thing the (attackers) did was lay into the porters, basically hacking and slashing.

"They killed one guy just about outright."

The eight tourists were in their tents when a mob of six armed men struck at dusk on Tuesday.

Besides killing Kuia Kerry and Matthew Lasong at the camp site, the gang also seriously injured six other PNG guides, who are being treated in Lae's Angau hospital.

Four of the Australians were injured, including one who was speared through the leg.

Nick Bennett, from Mackay in central Queensland, said he stuck his head out of his tent and was hit with the barrel of a gun.

"I could see one of the guys just attacking the porters with a bush knife and it was just a butchery."

The group was forced to lie on the ground as the armed men ransacked their packs, stealing passports and other items.

Mr Stevens said two of the attackers were obviously drugged. "They then laid into us with bush knives, hitting us with the flats of the knives.

"You can't tell whether they're going to hit you with the flat side."

When the attackers demanded to speak to whoever was in charge, it fell to trek leader and the only woman in the group, Christie King, to face the attackers.

"Christie King, the tour guide, was amazing," Mr Stevens said. "Very brave . . . When they demanded to speak to the boss man, Christie stood up."

Ms King, who declined to speak to the media, decided those capable should walk to the town of Wau for help -- 5 1/2 hours in the same direction their attackers had taken, a move local officials have described as "pretty gutsy".

Mr Stevens said: "We could smell their marijuana ahead of us."

Villagers on the trail have begun a vigilante-style manhunt, rivalling the police search for the armed gang.

National police spokesman Superintendent Dominic Kakas told The Australian that "a new problem is that locals are taking it on themselves to join the search for the attackers".

"If they catch them first, we don't know what they will do. They also run the risk of being attacked themselves. We have communicated to them to leave it to the police," he said.

Torrential rain hampered the search yesterday along the trail, which stretches from Wau where the trekkers had set off -- to Salamaua on the Morobe coast.

National police commissioner Tom Kulunga flew to Lae yesterday afternoon to oversee the search, in which Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has taken a personal interest.

Superintendent Leo Lamei, the provincial police commander in Morobe, said: "My men are on the ground, hunting them in the bush and in the jungle, but we haven't located them yet."

He said tropical downpours had prevented the police helicopter from bringing in a fresh and larger police squad of 30 to replace the six officers who had walked six hours to the crime scene on Wednesday.

The police were able to communicate via mobile phones -- but only, the superintendent said, while their batteries lasted.

He hoped that clues might emerge from the surviving porters, who were starting to make statements to the police after their wounds had been stabilised.

Superintendent Kakas said police had not yet established whether the attackers included prison escapees, as claimed by local MP Sam Basil.

Mr O'Neill told parliament that he was concerned about "continuous break-outs in prisons" in the Wau area, "which are just occurring at will".

Mr Stevens's wife, Dee Sheffrin, said the other Melbourne-based members of the group were all good friends, including Glen Reiss and John Hill, with whom Mr Stevens served in the army.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AAP