JAKARTA, Oct 30: Indonesian police increased patrols on Sunday in the Poso area, plagued by sectarian violence for years, after assailants in black beheaded three teenage Christian girls.

At the Vatican, Pope Benedict offered his deepest sympathies to the families of the 16 to 19-year-old students, who police said were attacked by six machete-wielding men as they walked to school on Saturday on Indonesia’s eastern island of Sulawesi.

Police official Made Rai said about 1,000 police, including reinforcements from other parts of the country, were securing the remote regency of Poso, with more than 300 additional officers expected to arrive during the day.—Reuters