Blast rocks Philippines airport

Blast rocks Philippines airport

An explosion has ripped through Davao City airport on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, killing at least 15 people.
Local TV reported that many others had been injured, among them children.

According to initial reports, the explosive went off at around 5:15pm (0915 GMT) in the arrivals hall, airport authorities said.

The presidential adviser for Mindanao affairs, Jesus Dureza, told Reuters news agency that the cause of the blast was still unknown.

“We don’t know whether it’s a bomb or a grenade,” he said.

There is also no information on who was behind the blast.

In the past, rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have been blamed by the military for a string of attacks on the island, including a car-bomb explosion at Cotabato airport last month, which killed one and injured another six people.

The Abu Sayyaf militant group has also been blamed for bomb attacks in the region.

Rebel unrest

Tuesday’s explosion “happened … a few minutes after a Cebu Pacific flight arrived, and people packed the waiting area,” an airport security official told the Associated Press news agency.

“There were many people killed. I saw six persons killed on the spot,” the official said.

Davao City, about 1,000 km (600 miles) south of Manila, is the largest city on the island of Mindanao.

The island is mired in factional fighting, with government troops clashing regularly with Muslim separatist rebels.

The rebels have been fighting for a separate Muslim homeland in the southern Philippines for three decades.

The Philippine army said on Tuesday it had killed 14 rebels in fighting on the island.

Mindanao was also hit by a major power cut on Tuesday, for the second time in a week, amid rumours of a suspected sabotage by guerrilla groups.