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Bomb tears through teeming bus station in south Philippines

A powerful bomb ripped through a teeming bus terminal in the southern Philippines yesterday, killing a five-year-old boy and wounding about three dozen other people, police and hospital officials said.

The improvised explosive device was believed to have been left in a cluster of stalls near the main gate at the Weena Bus Terminal in Cotabato, where many passengers were milling around to board buses, said Superintendent Jomar Yap, police spokesman for the central Mindanao region.

"Witnesses heard a loud explosion from one of the stores. The victims, most of them passengers and pedestrians, were rushed to hospitals. Troops are now in the area. The entire city was placed on high alert," Yap said.

Police said suspects include Islamic extremists who have been accused of involvement in previous blasts in the area or extortionists who launched earlier attacks against the bus company.

The bombing, which reportedly was heard 3km away, came barely a week after Australia and the US warned their citizens of possible terror attacks in the Mindanao area.

The wounded were rushed to at least two hospitals. Norma Reyes, chief emergency room nurse at Cotabato Regional and Medical Center, said 27 victims were brought there, including five-year-old Adril Watangao, who died.

At least nine of the wounded were in critical condition, including Watangao's seven-year-old sister, Melanie, Reyes said.

Another hospital reported receiving 10 casualties.

"We're still investigating the motives and identities of the bombers. We're not ruling out a terror attack, although the Weena Bus company has been a favorite target of extortionists in the past," said Chief Superintendent Felizardo Serapio, the regional police chief.

A police desk officer said minutes before the explosion, an unidentified man called the precinct to warn that a bomb was to explode at the bus terminal.

Police operatives had been dispatched to the area, but the bomb exploded seconds after they arrived, added the officer, who did not want to be named because she was not authorized to talk to the media.
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