MANILA, Oct.19 — Eight people were killed and as many as 130 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 late today, gave assurances of a swift and full-blown investigation. She said the police and the military were “on their highest alert” and that 2,000 more security officers had been deployed to secure public places.
“I warn those who seek to destabilize our government not to exploit this incident for their selfish political motives,” Mrs. Arroyo added, apparently referring to her political opponents, who have been calling for her ouster because of accusations of corruption. “This is the time for all of us to unite. We urge all sectors to remain vigilant as the government steps up security measures to protect our people.”
An initial police report attributed the destruction to the explosion of a tank of liquefied petroleum gas in a restaurant, but that theory was soon discounted. “It appears that this was caused by a bomb,” Mrs. Arroyo said.
The explosion occurred at 1:30 p.m. on the ground floor of Glorietta 2, a mall popular with young professionals and other affluent Manila residents, the police said. 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. Eyewitnesses said it left a crater at the foot an escalator, near one of the mall’s entrances.
Among the wounded are two South Koreans and one Chinese, officials said.
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.” Ms. Marinas said she saw 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.
Filipino blogs and message boards were abuzz Friday afternoon with accounts of the explosion. One blogger who calls himself Disney posted more than 30 pictures of the explosion less than two hours after it happened.
“I’m still shaking,” he wrote. “I saw debris falling down when it exploded and people were screaming and running coming out of the smoke.”
Angeliz105 posted on a message board : “I have never expected myself to be an eyewitness to such a tragedy. Man staring blankly at his bloodied hand, women hysterically screaming, unconscious woman lying lifeless near the blast, frantic sirens and alarms, broken glass and debris everywhere.”
The Philippines is home to Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group linked with Jemaah Islamiyah, the terrorist network based in Indonesia that is suspected to have ties to Al Qaeda. According to the police, the two groups are responsible for some of the worst attacks in the country.
Terrorist attacks and bombings in the Philippines have occurred mostly in the troubled island of Mindanao, in the south, where Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah are most active.
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