Three Killed, Dozens Hurt in Philippine Mall Blasts

17/10/2002| IslamWeb

At least three people were killed and dozens wounded when bombs ripped through a shopping center in the largely Christian city of Zamboanga in the southern Philippines on Thursday, officials said. No group has claimed responsibility but officials said they suspected the blasts were the work of radicals fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the Roman Catholic nation.

At least 55 people were injured.

"Three people have died and 47 were brought in for treatment in one hospital I visited. There are also eight wounded in another hospital," Zamboanga Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat told Reuters by phone.

The explosions occurred amid a heightened security alert across the Philippines after deadly bomb attacks on the Indonesian resort island of Bali last weekend in which more than 180 people were killed and hundreds injured.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Filipino soldier walks through the bomb site in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga, October 17, 2002. Bombs believed to have been planted by Muslim extremists ripped through the main shopping district of a mostly Christian city in the southern Philippines on Thursday killing five people and wounding 144. REUTERS/Stringer