SYDNEY May 19 Kyodo A 60-year-old...

SYDNEY May 19 Kyodo

A 60-year-old Australian missionary was slayed in the Solomon Islands through a surprise attacker who beheaded him from behind with a machete, Solomon Islands police said Monday.

Lance Gersbach was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist temple and had been living in the town of Atoifi onward the island of Malaita with his wife and pair teenage daughters for the past four month said David Bale, envoy director of the criminal investigations department.

''He was killed Sunday afternoon about 2:30 pm (local time) while helping to put together a shop the church is building to generate income for its hospital,'' he told Kyodo of the present days ''He was working with sum of two units Solomon islanders and when they went domicile the killer came from behind and chopp against his head.''

The police have been told through church officials that there had been a local dispute about the land the store was being built on, Bale said.

An investigation team flew to the island from the capital Honiara early Monday, Bale said.

Gersbach's carcass accompanied by his wife and daughters, was evacuated to Honiara late Sunday and is rely uponed to be returned to Australia forward Tuesday, he said.

The Seventh Day Adventist house of worship has a large following in Atoifi with about 3000 members, Bale said. Gersbach had been give employment toed by the church as a business adviser to exhibit its mission station.

Four years of ethnic tension between the the public on the main island of Guadalcanal and colonists from Malaita has made violence a used by all feature in the island nation of 500000 people

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