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| Southeast Asia |
| Bombing at Manila mall leaves 8 dead, 89 hurt |
| 2007-10-20 |
| Eight people were killed and as many as 89 others wounded Friday when a powerful explosion ripped through a shopping mall in Makati City, the Philippine capital's financial district. "This was a bomb," the country's police chief, Avelino Razon, said at the scene. "But we can't say anything else yet because we are still investigating." President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in a statement, instructed the police to leave "no stone unturned" in its investigation. An initial police report attributed the destruction to the explosion of a tank of liquefied petroleum gas, but that theory was soon discounted. Razon said that the police in the Manila area were on full alert. He said he had ordered more checkpoints and deployed more police officers to shopping malls. The explosion on the ground floor of Glorietta 2, a mall popular with young professionals and other affluent Manila residents, occurred early in the afternoon. It destroyed a portion of the mall's roof and damaged several shops. Debris littered the street, some of it damaging cars parked near the complex. Icy Marinas, a shopper, told the radio station DZMM that she had been only 15 meters, or 50 feet, from the explosion, which she described as being like an "intense earthquake." Marinas said that had seen a pregnant woman crying and others rushing for the exits. A taxi driver told The Associated Press that the blast slammed two women who had just gotten out of his cab back against it, killing both of them. |
| Posted by:Fred |