2 killed, over dozen injured in southern Philippines blast

[News_Editor]

2 killed, over dozen injured in southern Philippines blast

2011-06-26 00:45:26 GMT+7 (ICT)

ZAMBOANGA CITY, PHILIPPINES (BNO NEWS) -- Two people were killed and over a dozen others wounded on Saturday in a gas explosion in southern Philippines, the Mindanao Examiner reported.

According to police, the blast occurred inside a restaurant in downtown Isabela City in the province of Basilan. Police, however, are still investigating the cause of the explosion.

"Initial reports said the blast may have come from a cooking gas cylinder at the kitchen of the restaurant. Two people had died from the blast and more than a dozen others are wounded, including a solider and a policeman," Senior Superintendent Alexis Lineses, the provincial police commander, told the regional newspaper.

In April, a powerful improvised explosive went off inside a lodging house in Basilan's Lamitan City and security forces detonated three more bombs planted in various sites.

Authorities are in alert in Basilan because of threats of Abu Sayyaf attacks and kidnappings. Basilan, one of the five provinces of the Muslim autonomous region, is a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf, a band of self-styled Islamists who have been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines.


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