The three had been taken captive Feb. 19 whereas conducting fieldwork at Mount Bosavi within the wilds of the South Pacific island nation. A fourth hostage had already been launched.

Australian International Minister Penny Wong tweeted Sunday that the previous hostages “will quickly be reunited with their households.”

The three had been flown to Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby the place they had been welcomed by the nation’s Prime Minister James Marape.

“It was a random, opportunistic crime that passed off, however one thing that I condemned within the varied strongest phrases doable,” Marape advised reporters.

He stated the three hostages had been secured “by means of covert operations” with out paying the three.5 million Papua New Guinea kina ($993,000) ransom. Nevertheless, media experiences say a considerably smaller ransom had been paid.

Kidnap for ransom is an unusual crime in Papua New Guinea, a tribal society of 9 million people who find themselves principally subsistence farmers.

Marape stated police remained decided to catch the perpetrators.

“Let me inform all of the criminals: Police firepower is all the time increased than prison firepower. I cannot tolerate this kind of nonsense anymore,” Marape advised reporters, including that police and troopers remained on the crime scene.

USQ Vice-Chancellor Geraldine Mackenzie stated Sunday the college was relieved to listen to their much-loved colleague and his analysis group had been launched.

“Bryce is a extremely regarded archaeologist and a valued colleague on the College of Southern Queensland and within the wider archaeological neighborhood. He has a few years expertise in endeavor analysis in PNG,” Mackenzie stated. “Our deepest thanks go to the governments of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand, and the many individuals who labored tirelessly throughout this extraordinarily tough and delicate time to safe their launch.”

This story has been corrected to replicate that one of many hostages had already been launched, not two.