ELEVEN people were arrested after a deadly clash at a nightclub in Indonesia’s easternmost region, police said today.

The fight erupted on Tuesday in Sorong, a relatively quiet city in West Papua province, and 18 people were killed, most of them in a blaze at the Double O nightclub. 

Indonesia’s National Police had earlier said the death toll was 19, but later corrected the number “following a development in the field”.

“We have arrested 11 people,” West Papua Police chief Tornagogo Sihombing said at a press conference, adding two of them were believed to have been involved in the stabbing of a victim. 

The nine others were allegedly behind the arson that killed the nightclub’s visitors and employees, including a guest DJ and band members.

Police were hunting seven other people, Sihombing added.

Tuesday’s clash was part of an ongoing feud between two ethnic groups and followed a misunderstanding, according to police, and escalated to involve machetes, arrows and Molotov cocktails.

Authorities summoned leaders of both groups and asked them to hand over the suspects. – AFP, January 29, 2022.