At least six people were killed and dozens injured in a bomb explosion inside a shopping centre in southern Philippines late Friday night, authorities said Saturday.
The dead included a provincial council member and five civilians, Xinhua reported. Twenty-eight others were wounded as an alleged improvised explosive went off at the Limketkai Mall in downtown Cagayan de Oro city in Mindanao's Misamis Oriental province, according to Lieutenant Colonel Leo Bongosia, spokesperson for the Philippine Army's 4th Infantry Division.
Graciano Mijares, city police chief, said provincial board member Roldan Lagbas and five others were killed as the powerful explosion ripped through Kyla's Bistro, a posh restaurant at the mall.
Mijares said a task force would investigate the deadly blast.
"This was a big blow to the peace and order condition of this city. We condemned this incident to the highest degree," vice mayor Ian Acenas said, even as he described a horrific scene of blood and mangled bodies strewn about at the blast site.
The blast was the first of such incident in Cagayan de Oro, a city of more than 600,000 residents that is a regional corridor to the Muslim-dominated northern and western parts of Mindanao.
The incident came just over a week after a violent clash between rival Muslim clans in neighbouring Lanao province left at least a dozen people dead.