Grenade attack injures 37 in Davao City

DAVAO CITY, Philippines –At least 37 people wounded in grenade explosion during a village fiesta in remote Paquibato District here Saturday night.

 
Major Jacob Oblgado, spokesperson of the military’s 10th Infantry Division, said an unidentified man tossed a grenade at a crowd watching a circus performance in the village of Fatima.

Obligado said the victims were rushed to the nearest hospitals in Panabo City in Davao del Norte.

The blast in Davao city was apparently meant to strike an army camp but the grenade bounced off netting and landed inside an adjacent basketball gym where a circus was being held late Saturday, police said.

“It bounced when it hit a net barrier of the camp and exploded inside the gymnasium,” police chief Superintendent Ronald dela Rosa said.

Dela Rosa said none of the injuries were life-threatening.

It was not yet known who carried out the attack and why, but communist and Muslim insurgents are known to operate in the area and have been blamed for similar incidents in the past.

Davao city is on Mindanao island in the southern third of the mainly Catholic Philippines where deadly insurgencies have raged for decades.

Originally posted at 10:03 am | Sunday, September 2, 2012