3 people injured by grenade blast in QC

Three people, including a 9-year-old girl, were injured after a hand grenade was hurled at the house of a barangay worker in Quezon City on Thursday.

The explosion rocked the neighborhood along Road 1 in Barangay Bagong Pag-asa at around 8:15 p.m., the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) said.

Footage from a closed-circuit television camera showed two men on a motorbike fleeing the blast at the backyard of 66-year-old Leandro Gabut’s house.

Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, QCPD director, said Gabut was watching television with his 9-year-old granddaughter inside their house, when they heard something land on their balcony roof. Eleazar said the hand grenade had lots of shrapnel that caused minor injuries to three victims.

The girl, a Grade 4 student, was taken to Capitol Medical Center after a shrapnel pierced their screen door and hit her right knee. Alitalia Lou Velasco, 32, and Roderick Sadia, 46, also sustained minor injuries.

Velasco was just passing by the house, while Sadia, a Grab driver, was in his car when his window was shattered. Police recovered the safety lever of the grenade from the scene.—Jhesset O. Enano