MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Two elementary children were killed Friday when a grenade they found while hunting for swamp birds exploded.
The fatalities, Nash Utto and Edris Guiaman, died from multiple shrapnel wounds.
They were hunting for birds in a wetland in Barangay Sampao in Radjah Buayan, Maguindanao where they found the grenade that they played with and went off.
Radjah Buayan Mayor Yacob Ampatuan told reporters Saturday the blast fatalities were immediately buried by their relatives in keeping with Islamic tradition of burying the dead within 24 hours after death.
Barangay Sampao was scene of heavy gunfights in years past between soldiers and fanatical extremists groups operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.