Christian Motte – For the sake of their own safety, thousands of Freeport employees are temporarily forbidden to leave the company's Tembagapura mining site in Papua following a series of fatal shootings, a spokesman said on Saturday.

"Based on safety and security considerations for the employees and their families, they are requested to stay at the mining site until the situation is considered to be safe for certain," said company spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan. Police have dispatched more personnel to fortify security following the shootings near Freeport's gold mine.

Meanwhile, Freeport employees who have to travel to the mine from Timika have also been stopped from doing so temporarily.

"We don't want to take the risk, it's better off to let the employees at the Tembagapura site to stay, while the employees who want to get to work at Tembagapura are told to take a day off [for the time being]," he said.