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Three killed, dozens hurt in Philippine mall blasts
( 2002-10-17 14:23 ) (7 )

A Filipino Marine guards a checkpoint on the outskirts of Zamboanga in the southern Philippines in this October 13 photo.[Reuters]

Two bombs ripped through a shopping centre in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga on Thursday, killing at least three people and wounding dozens in the heartland of a Muslim insurgency.

The explosions came amid a heightened security alert across the Roman Catholic Philippines after bomb attacks on the Indonesian resort island of Bali last weekend which killed@than 180 people.

The first bomb wrecked cars, flung motorcycles down the street and tore open shuttered shops. One man was thrown through a plate glass window. Police were seen later dragging away the injured, some horribly mutilated.

Police cordoned off the streets around the shopping complex where bunting hung incongruously under the baking sun. One corner shop advertised European bread for sale.

Investigators said the first blast occurred in the vegetable section of the crowded Shop-o-Rama mall, one of the most popular in Zamboanga. Minutes later, an explosion rocked a shop nearby.

Police found another bomb planted at Shop-o-Rama and safely detonated it.

No group claimed responsibility but officials said they suspected the Zamboanga blasts were the work of radicals fighting for an Islamic state in the south.

At least 55 people were wounded.

"Three people have died and 47 were brought in for treatment in one hospital I visited. There are also eight wounded in another hospital," Zamboanga Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat told Reuters by phone.

BLOOD-SMEARED FLOORS

Blood smeared the floors of the hospital where doctors and paramedics, strapping on rubber gloves, worked furiously to save lives. A policeman stood by with the words "stop death" on the back of his uniform.

At least one man had had his limbs blown off by the force of one of the blasts.

Asked if Muslim extremist groups might be involved in the explosions, Lobregat said" The blasts occurred about two weeks after a home-made bomb exploded near a karaoke bar in the city, killing a US soldier and two Filipino civilians.

Police blamed that explosion on October 2 on Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrillas linked by the United States to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Zamboanga is a mainly Christian city of 700,000 people. It is one of the largest cities in the southern Philippines, the region where most of the country's four million Muslims live.

The Philippines' 76 million people are overwhelmingly Christian.

US forces have been helping to train Filipino soldiers to fight Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, active in the south and linked by the United States to al Qaeda, alleged mastermind of last year's September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

On Sunday, the Philippines condemned the Bali bomb blasts as an "act of terrorism" and said it was on a heightened security alert to prevent a spillover of violence.