An Australian man and his British colleague were killed on Sunday night in a bomb blast in the Solomon Islands, local police said.
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The men were working for the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPG), an NGO that was conducting a survey on the contamination of Unexploded Ordnances (UXOs), which date back to World War II.
“We are devastated by what has happened, and for the loss of two good colleagues,” NPA’s secretary general Henriette Killi Westhrin said in a statement.
The aid agency named the men as Trent Lee (Australian) and Stephen Atkinson (British citizen).
The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) are investigating the incident and urged residents in West Honiara to stay away from the area.
“We call on members of the public in the Tasahe area of West Honiara to please stay well away from the area of the incident and allow RSIPF officers to do their work as we investigate this tragic incident,” police spokesperson Clifford Tunuki said.
The NPA said it had been working on a project with the government to locate unexploded bombs.
Its activities in Solomon Islands have temporarily been put on hold.
Tunuki confirmed no RSIPF officers were present at the time of the blast, “despite the fact that we work together on the Project.”
“On behalf of the RSIPF, I wish to convey my sincere condolences to families and relatives of those two foreign nationals, who died in this tragic incident,” he added.
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