8 injured in Tacurong City explosion

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 3): 8 injured in Tacurong City explosion

Eight persons were wounded in an explosion here Monday morning perpetrated by a man now being hunted by authorities, police said.

Senior Supt. Raul Supiter, Sultan Kudarat police director, said the improvised explosive device (IED) was thrown by the suspect beside a fried banana vendor, not far from the Valdez Mother and Child Hospital and Sultan Kudarat Electric Cooperative (SUKELCO) main office at around 8:30 a.m.

"It was an improvised bomb that will explode when lobbed," Supiter said.

Police and bomb experts found cut nails and metal fragments in the blast site along the busy national highway in front of a private university.

The injured include the woman banana vendor and seven workers of SUKELCO, who were to attend a forum in an open space fronting the electric cooperative office.

The motive of the attack remained unknown but the Tacurong City police are following up a lead that could eventually arrest the perpetrators, said Supt. Romeo Galgo Jr, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office 12.

Supiter said that after the blast, the suspect fled on foot towards a waiting motorcycle driven by an accomplice.

Galgo said Janice Alacdo, 34, the banana vendor and resident of Barangay New Carmen this city, was seriously injured since the IED landed near her roadside stall.

The cooperative's employees sustained minor injures and are now out of danger.

The police in Sultan Kudarat have been placed on heightened alert following the bomb attack, the seventh in Region 12 or Soccsksargen region since Tuesday last week.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=977056