Eatery owner loses three fingers to grenade

A CARENDERIA owner was wounded after the grenade he found near a police headquarters in Cebu City exploded in his hands past noon yesterday.

Luther Labares, 45, lost three fingers because of the explosion. He was rushed to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for treatment.

Police later identified the explosive as an M67 fragmentation grenade.

Police said Labares found the grenade in a plastic bag dumped in a vacant lot beside the headquarters of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) in Osmeña Boulevard.

Police said the man didn’t know what he found was a grenade.

The bag also contained a wig and a gun holster.

Police said Labares removed the safety pin of the grenade. The grenade exploded when Labares tinkered with the explosive.

“Sipa kaayo. Abot ang buto sa among police station ( The explosion was so loud that it reached the police station),” Senior Insp. Chuck Barandog, chief of police station 2, said.

The police station was about 300 meters from the site.

Some carenderia customers scampered for safety after hearing the explosion.

Luckily, Labares’ six-month-old niece who was sleeping nearby was not hurt.

SPO4 Edmundo Capangpangan, a bomb expert from the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), said the whole grenade did not explode.

“Wa nay pressure nga mobuto gyod siya (There was no enough pressure for it to totally explode),” Capangpangan said.

Chief Supt. Marcelo Garbo, director of the PRO-7, said the incident will be investigated further to find out how the grenade ended up in the vacant lot and determine who owns it.