The governor of a Papua New Guinea province is warning that a potential law amendment could result in people carrying wire slingshots receiving lengthy prison terms.
East Sepik's governor Allan Byrd said there's been an explosion in the use of violence by young people over the past five years.
He said in the Boram district alone during October there were 256 wire katapel, or slingshot, attacks resulting in the deaths of eight people.
The governor said guns and bushknives are also being used to kill and injure people.
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Byrd said this places a huge burden on the hospital system, with a 10-person surgery team needed to try and save a wire katapel victim, with surgeries taking up to seven hours, in a hospital with just two surgical wards.
Byrd said if the patient dies during surgery, the relatives threaten the hospital workers who become afraid of working with katapel victims.
The governor said on his Facebook page that the police are afraid of the human rights provisions of the constitution.
He said the East Sepik government will look at amending the criminal code so anyone making, carrying or using a wire katapel is automatically guilty of an offence punishable by a lengthy prison term.