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ZAMBOANGA (AFP) - Attackers hurled two grenades into a vote-counting centre in the southern Philippines and wounded three poll monitors, an official said Tuesday.

The unidentified assailants struck late Monday at a school on Basilan Island, a hotbed of Islamic extremists and where armed gangs often wreak havoc, said town mayor Roderick Furigay.

Election officers were manually tallying votes cast for local officials in the May 14 mid-term election at the t ime, although none of the three who were injured were in a life-threatening condition.

It was the latest in a string of deadly poll-related violence that has so far claimed more than 130 lives across the country.

A mayor and a local councilman were shot dead at the weekend in the town of Bacarra in the north. Six other people were wounded before security staff shot and killed the attacker, police said.

The manual count is still unfinished in many areas of the country, keeping political tensions high.

At stake were all 275 seats in the House of Representatives, half of the 24 Senate seats and more than 17,000 posts.

Many of those killed since the campaign started in January were candidates for local posts in the provinces or their supporters.