Grenades hurled into crowd

Press, 15 April 1980, Page 8

Grenades hurled into crowd

NZPA-Reuter Manik Eleven people were killed and more than 100 wounded when two grenades were thrown into a crowd watching a fire in Pagadian City in the southern Philippines yesterday. They said the attackers, who were not identiifed, managed to escape by mingling with the crowd watching the fire, which destroyed an entire block of commercial establishments. The attack was the-latest in a series of grenade assaults in largely Muslim southern areas of the predominantly Christian Philippines. Muslim secessionist rebels have fought an eight - year campaign against Government forces in the south, but there was no immediate indication whether they were involved in the latest attack. Local security officials said they were looking into a possible connection between the grenade attack and the fire itself, which started in a hotel room. Those injured in the grenade assault were taken to different hospitals in the region, some 800 km south of Manila. Government relief agencies were sending teams to the area. More than 70 people have died in grenade attacks in various cities of the south in the last two months.