From Agence France-Presse

Topic Multimedia (5/8984)
Philippines-blast, 6thlead October 19, 2007 4:11:43 PM [Load]
Four killed in bombing at Philippines mall =(PICTURE)=

ATTENTION - ADDS police on alert ///


MANILA, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - A bomb ripped through a shopping mall in the Philippines capital's financial district Friday, killing four people, police and rescue workers said.
Panicked shoppers ran out of the Glorietta mall in the Makati district of Manila as smoke billowed out of the building.
A member of the rescue teams inside the mall told AFP four people have been confirmed dead. Local television said at least 45 other people were injured.
Police initially blamed the noon time blast on a gas leak at a restaurant inside the shopping centre.
However national police chief Avelino Razon said: "From our assessment this was not, as initially reported, an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) leak.
"This was a bomb. But beyond that we can't say anything else yet because we are still investigating. What I can say is it was not LPG that caused this."
Local media said the scale and type of the damage tended to rule out a mere fuel tank explosion.
Witnesses said part of a ceiling collapsed while a concrete wall was blown out. ABS-CBN television reported seeing a huge crater on the concrete floor on the ground floor.
Two cars and two delivery vans were buried under wooden planks and concrete debris outside the mall.
"It was so powerful," clothing store clerk Jeric Balendes told AFP on the scene, as rescuers applied first aid on his cuts and bruises.
"The roof just collapsed on us. I could hear my three co-workers screaming. I got out through a small hole. I don't know if they got out."
Police stepped up security across the Manila area, a sprawling city of 12 million people.
Bomb squad teams sifted through the debris looking for clues, while extra police were drafted in to divert traffic and seal off the surrounding area -- one of the busiest shopping districts of Manila.
Makati City councilor JunJun Binay said the explosion left an eight-metre (26-foot) wide crater on the ground floor and blew a hole through the roof on the second floor.
"From what I have seen it was a significant explosion and that most of the dead and injured were all employees," he said.
The bodies of three of the dead lay covered in blankets on the floor of the adjacent car park, being used as an emergency medical assessment area.
"There was a sudden explosion," said Christine Calope, one of the injured. "I don't know if it was inside or outside the mall."
Witnesses said the blast occurred in a section of the mall with clusters of stores selling baby clothes and toys.
Regional police chief Geary Barias said police had not received any threats about an attack.
Police did not immediately name likely suspects for the attack, but Islamic militants were blamed for a bomb on a bus near the Glorietta mall that killed four people in February 2005.
Militants also firebombed a ferry on Manila Bay the previous year, killing more than 100 people in the country's worst terrorist attack.
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Philippines-blast AFP

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