2 hurt in Tacurong public market blast

COTABATO CITY — Two civilians were injured in a powerful explosion that ripped through the public market of Tacurong City yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Suharto Teng Tocao, Sultan Kudarat police director, said it was just fortunate that a vigilant market watchman managed to move the bag containing the improvised explosive away from the center of the market before it could explode.

"The guard noticed the suspicious bag and, wasting no time, immediately brought it away from the spot where it was left," he said.

Tocao said the two wounded marketgoers — Chita Magon, a resident of Tantangan, South Cotabato, and a still unidentified minor — were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

He said two teenagers left the bag containing the explosive fashioned from an 81-mm mortar with a blasting cap near a public comfort room in the market.

There have been more than a dozen bombings in Tacurong City in the past two years, some of them blamed on religious extremists reportedly extorting money from local traders. — John Unson and Ramil Bajo