Up to 24 injured in school blast

KIDAPAWAN CITY, North Cotabato – Twenty-four persons were wounded, 17 of them in critical condition, when an improvised explosive device went off inside a state-run college in Arakan, North Cotabato on Sunday night.

Senior Inspector Rolly Oranza, police chief of Arakan, said the blast came while a fire was in progress inside the campus of Cotabato Foundation College of Science and technology in Barangay Poblacion around 8 p.m.

“A fire hit the presidential cottage inside the campus where school security guards temporarily reside,” Oranza said.

Oranza said investigation showed that fire was intentional as arson investigators recovered containers with gasoline and chemical residue.

Most of the victims were teachers, students, security guards and police personnel who had responded to the fire.

“We are still determining the composition of explosive,” Oranza said, adding police could not say yet what the reason for the attack was.

He added that some students and school workers live on campus.

Asked if the explosion and fire were part of an alleged plot to have the school president removed, Oranza replied, “We have no report about that.”

Last September, an improvised explosive device was planted in front of the school’s flagpole but a security guard found it before it could explode. Police later defused the bomb, which was made from an 81-mm mortar shell.

Related stories:

6 killed in Cotabato City blast

8 persons hurt in North Cotabato blast

‘Bomb-for-hire’ may be behind deadly Cotabato blast—PNP