Bomb blast kills 5, wounds 150 near World Vision project

Two bombs exploded in two adjacent shopping centres yesterday in Zamboanga City killing five persons and wounding at least 150 others.

The explosions took place in an area just a few hundred meters away from World Vision project J-Jireh 1. All 2,137 sponsored children are safe, as well as the 2,537 sponsored children in J-Jireh 2, which is an hours drive from Zamboanga City, according to Jocelyn Mariscal, World Vision Philippines Mindanao Area Coordinator.

Bomb disposal experts found and defused seven other explosive devices planted around the commercial area, investigators said.

The first bomb exploded on the ground floor of the three-storey Shop-O-Rama department store. Minutes later, at the height of the ensuing panic caused by the first explosion, a second blast at the adjacent Shoppers' Central went off, instantly killing at least one person. The four other fatalities died on arrival at the hospital or while being treated, officials said.

Wounded victims lay on the sidewalk among mangled bodies, body parts and shattered glass, witnesses said. All the shops in the district were immediately evacuated while schools suspended classes.

The force of the explosions was heard and felt by residents in the World Vision project area, Ms. Mariscal reported. The project area’s Global Census, the simultaneous individual counting and assessment of the condition of World Vision sponsored children worldwide, was also indefinitely cancelled.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, the sixth in this troubled southern Philippine island this year. Security officials are looking at the possibility that the attack may be related to the Bali bombings in Indonesia.

As a precautionary measure, World Vision Philippines has cancelled all trips of non-Zamboanga City-based staff to that city. Precautionary measures are also being taken in other World Vision project areas in southern Mindanao.

by Louie Baclagon - Communications