Timika, Papua – Unidentified gunmen have attacked a group of workers near Freeport-McMoRan's gold and copper mine in eastern Indonesia, wounding several of them.

Company spokesman Ramdani Sirait said the shooting of the workers from a local contractor occurred on Thursday morning.

It was the second attack this week and the third this year near the world's largest gold mine in restive Papua province where a low-level insurgency is fighting for independence.

A police officer was fatally shot and another wounded on Tuesday. Two contract workers were killed last month.

The mine, run by a subsidiary of the Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. has been hit with arson, roadside attacks and blockades since operations began in the 1970s.