A grenade blast wounded eight people in a public market near Manila yesterday, and a separate explosion damaged a mobile police station in the capital, police said.
The grenade, concealed in a bag, went off at dawn beside a parked passenger jeep outside a public market in Lipa city, in Batangas province south of Manila, wounding at least eight passers-by, police officer Gemma Silva said.
Nobody was arrested and investigators refused to speculate on who was behind the attack, she said.
PHOTO: AFP
Communist guerrillas are active in Batangas, a largely agricultural province about 100km south of Manila, but there was no indication they were involved, she said.
Police cordoned off the area and ordnance teams checked for more explosives but found nothing, she said.
"This was obviously meant to scare people but we don't know who is behind this and what's their motive," Silva said by telephone.
Almost simultaneously, a suspected homemade bomb exploded in a bus being used as a mobile police station and jail in Manila's suburban Quezon City, damaging the vehicle but causing no injuries, police said.
A group of police had left the mobile station for a nearby restaurant when the powerful blast ripped through the vehicle, punching a hole in one side, shattering windows and raining debris on the ground, police said.
Investigators were trying to determine the motive.
A fire truck sprayed water over the white bus, with markings identifying it as a police station, before investigators entered.
It was not clear whether the bomb was planted in the bus or was hurled through an open window after the police inside had left, metropolitan Manila police chief Vidal Querol said.
There was no sign the two explosions were linked, but intelligence agencies promptly started a security assessment, Querol said. In a radio interview, Querol urged the public to remain calm but be vigilant.
Among possible suspects in the Manila blast were al-Qaeda-linked militants, military rebels, communist guerrillas or common criminals, he said.
Police also were investigating what appeared to be a small blast at dawn outside another Manila police station which did not cause any damage or injuries. The blast was reported by some passers-by and vendors, Querol said.
The explosions heightened security concerns ahead of Independence Day celebrations today in the capital, where police have been placed on full alert since Friday.
About 6,000 policemen and soldiers were to be deployed Monday to guard a parade and other ceremonies to be led by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Left-wing groups were expected to hold protests calling for her resignation over vote-rigging and corruption allegations.
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