National St John Ambulance (NStJA) officers were unable to attend to a case reported at Sabama in Port Moresby city ten minutes into the New Year after the road was blocked off.
According to the incident report, at around 12:30am the ambulance team was prevented from going through due to heightened tension in the area with drunkards blocking the road. Police had to be called in to handle the situation while the ambulance team went to the Badili Police Station to wait for the situation to calm down before proceeding to the attend to the case.
There were other cases as well that the SJA team attended to during the New Year operations earlier between 9pm and 11pm, including three cases at 6 Mile where three men were reported to have knife wounds. Two men were stabbed while another sustained a cut in separate incidents.
In another case also attended by SJA officers was a labor case at 1:30am this New Year morning involving a pregnant woman at 9 Mile. However, during the transportation of the pregnant woman, the ambulance vehicle call sign Alpha 021 was attacked by hooligans, where the glass on the ambulance was shattered by a rock that was thrown at the ambulance.
Thankfully, the pregnant woman was unharmed despite the attack and has been transported to the Port Moresby General Hospital Labour ward at 3 Mile.