Bomb hits Zamboanga village chief's residence

ZAMBOANGA CITY - An improvised bomb exploded outside a barangay captain's residence in this city, before dawn on Sunday.

Chief Inspector Felixberto Martinez, Police Station 6 chief, said the bomb exploded outside the fence Hadji Attang Mohammad Nur's house at Flordeliz Drive, Barangay Mampang at around 2:15 a.m.

Martinez said Mohammad Nur, barangay captain of Tigtabon Island, east off this city and his family members were asleep when the explosion occurred.

“No one was reported hurt but the occupants of the house were awakened by the loud explosion,” Martinez told newsmen.

Elements of the police explosive ordnance and disposal (EOD) unit that responded in the area disclosed that the bomb was made of ammonium nitrate with fuel oil (ANFO), nails as shrapnel placed in a plastic container, a time fuse that was rigged to the concrete fence outside the house of the village chief.

The loud explosion, which sent the neighboring residents to panic, damaged the ceiling, windows and fence of the house.

Police have yet to determine the motive of the attack and the identities of the bombers.

Meanwhile, the Maria Clara Lobregat Highway was temporarily closed on Monday morning due to a suspiciously parked car near a mall.

With suspicions that the car was rigged with a bomb, alert members of the local city police's bomb disposal unit rushed to the car park and examined the vehicle that has been abandoned since Sunday night.

After a thorough inspection, police forcibly opened the car. Instead of a bomb, the policemen found boxes of medicines inside the abandoned car.

The vehicle's owner, who went to the area, after hearing about the commotion about the vehicle said he left his car after it failed to start due to engine trouble.