Explosion in Philippines shopping mall after detonation of bomb in suspected terror attack
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Suspected Muslim militants remotely detonated a bomb near the entrance of a mall in the southern Philippines on Monday as people did last-minute shopping ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations, killing at least two and wounding nearly 30, officials said.
At least two people were killed and dozens wounded in an explosion outside a shopping mall in the southern Philippines Monday.
Cotabato City Police spokesman Christopher Lee told CNN there was a suspected “IED explosion” outside the South Seas Mall in Cotabato City on the island of Mindanao.
The bomb went off near the baggage counter at the entrance of the South Seas mall in Cotabato city, wounding shoppers, vendors and commuters. Authorities recovered another unexploded bomb nearby as government forces imposed a security lockdown in the city, military and police officials said.
CNN reports that local pastor Jewel Blake H. Lumasag, who lives in Cotabato City, said he was on his way to the mall when the explosion hit. He told CNN police made him leave the area over fears there was another bomb.
According to the official Philippine News Agency, police are still trying to determine “if the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device or illegal powerful firecrackers that accidentally went off in the area.”
“We saw several people wounded and being rushed to the hospital,” Police Supt. Romeo Galgo Jr. told PNA. “We are still conducting a post-blast investigation.”
In a Facebook post Monday, Cotabato Mayor Frances Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi called the blast an “act against humanity.”
“I strongly condemn the bombing incident that happened in front of South Seas Mall today, a day before the New Year, the took away several innocent lives and injured dozen others,” she wrote.
“This is not just another terroristic act but an act against humanity. I cannot fathom how such evil exists in this time of merry making.”
