Days of tribal violence in Papua New Guinea's mountainous interior have left more than 35 people dead, a police official says.
Police Assistant Commissioner Joseph Tondon in Enga province says the death toll from the violence blamed on illegal miners is still being assessed.
"There was a fierce battle on Sunday. It's estimated 35-plus men were killed in action," Tondon told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
"I'm putting all the figures together. There were some innocent bystanders also murdered," he added.
A United Nations humanitarian adviser for the South Pacific island nation, Mate Bagossy, said as many as 50 people had been killed in days of violence in Enga.
He had no estimate for the number of wounded and was checking with local health facilities, which he said were ill-equipped to cope with medical emergencies.
Authorities told aid agencies on Tuesday that up to 300 soldiers and police were moving to the area to restore peace, Bagossy said.
"We are not sure it's calming. It's not yet stabilised," Bagossy said.
Fighting in the Porgera Valley broke out on the outskirts of Porgera town near the New Porgera gold mine, which has halted most of its operations because of the violence until at least Thursday.
Homes and businesses in Suyan village were razed in the fighting, the Post-Courier newspaper reported.
A disaster management meeting led by PNG's National Disaster Centre and the UN Resident Co-ordinator Richard Howard on Tuesday agreed to send a team to Porgera within days to assess humanitarian needs, the degree of danger and the area's accessibility, Bagossy said.
One obstacle for responders delivering aid was that the main road to Porgera remained blocked 40km from town by rubble from a massive landslide on May 24.
The national government estimates more than 2000 villagers were buried and hundreds more displaced. The UN estimated only 670 villagers died but does not dispute that the death toll could be far higher.
Tribal warfare is a growing security problem across PNG and is rife in Enga, where recovery has been slow since the landslide.