Grenade blast hits Maguindanao town

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - A grenade blast rocked a residential area in Datu Odin Sinsuat town on Sunday night, causing panic among Muslim and Christian villagers.

Senior Inspector Datutulon Pinguiaman, chief of the Datu Odin Sinsuat municipal police, said the grenade exploded near a chapel in a Catholic resort park in Tamontaka District, not far from the Maguindanao Awang Airport.

He said no one was hurt in the bombing.

Pinguiaman said witnesses saw one of three men riding a motorcycle tossed the fragmentation grenade near a sewage ditch several meters away from the gate of the park.

The suspects sped off towards nearby Cotabato City after the explosion.

Pinguiaman said responding Army ordnance experts found fragments of a Belgian PRB 423 grenade at the scene of the explosion.

He said investigators were trying to determine the identities of the suspects and the motive for the bombing.

The bombing was preceded by a grenade explosion that ripped through a metal fabrication shop in Barangay Saguing in Makilala town in North Cotabato on Friday dawn.

Investigators said two men riding a motorcycle were also responsible for the bombing.