Enga Provincial Police Commander Superintendent George Kakas. Photo: google+ / Kakas
Police in Papua New Guinea's Enga province say they have saved a woman who had been accused of sorcery from certain death.
Provincial commander Superintendent George Kakas said the woman from Kaiap village had been accused of using sorcery to kill another woman who died while giving birth a month ago.
Mr Kakas told EMTV that police received a tip-off that the woman was being held by angry villagers, so he deployed a team of 30 officers to rescue her.
He said they arrived in the nick of time and saved the woman from what he said was likely to be a certain death, but the suspects managed to flee.
Sorcery-related violence, often against women, was common in Papua New Guinea, where many people have been tortured or killed after being accused of sorcery.
In 2013, the government repealed the Sorcery Act, which acknowledged sorcery allegations as a defence, and reactivated the death penalty after a spate of high-profile killings.