7 revelers drown, 1 missing in Bulacan

SAN MIGUEL, Bulacan — At least seven people drowned and a boy was missing after a monsoon downpour sent rampaging waters down a denuded hill here last Sunday and swept them away in a river, police said.

Troops, police and villagers found the dead one by one overnight, some as far as 14 kilometers from the spot where they went out for a swim at the Biak-na-Bato Park here, police said.

The dead and missing, many of them minors, belonged to a group of revelers who had just attended a baptism in this hilly town, some 70 kilometers north of Manila.

When heavy rain came down, they were warned but ignored pleas for them to stay off the river, which suddenly swelled and became choppy, police said. — James Mananghaya and Ric Sapnu