TIMIKA (Indonesia), Sept 14: An explosion occurred at an airport belonging to US mining giant Freeport in Indonesia’s restive Papua province on Sunday, but there were no casualties, police said.

Freeport operates a copper and gold mine in Papua that has long been a source of tension in the province, and the latest incident follows a mortar explosion last week.

Police could not immediately say what caused the airport blast.

The poorly-armed separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) has run a low-level decades-long insurgency in the isolated province.

“Yes, it’s true that there was an explosion at an airport belonging to Freeport,” said the provincial police chief, Inspector-General Bagus Eko Danto.

He said there were no casualties from the blast, which happened around 10pm (1300 GMT), and it was unclear whether it was linked to last week’s incident, or was caused by a power generator.

An AFP photographer saw smoke rising up to 15 metres and saw walls cracked on houses several kilometres away.

Police blocked access to the airport.

On Friday police said they had found two old mortar rounds – one already exploded, near the road to Freeport’s massive Grasberg mine. They said they also found a hot plate suspected to have been used to heat up the rounds.

They said they could not link the incident to the OPM as investigations were continuing.

Critics say Freeport is not giving enough to the people of Papua in return for the mine. They say the mine causes pollution and the military’s protection of the site leads to human rights abuses.

The firm has disputed the claims. Major part of Freeport Indonesia is owned by US-based Freeport McMoRan.—AFP