Gas explosion kills 26 bus passengers in Philippines

MANILA, Feb 2 (Reuters) A packed bus was ripped apart and at least 26 people killed when it took the full force of a gas truck explosion on a highway in the southern Philippines, officials said today.

The delivery truck, which was carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), overturned after its brakes failed and the resulting explosion engulfed the passing bus, provincial police director Senior Superintendent Ramon Ochotorena said in a radio interview.

Ochotorena said police were scouring areas around a nearby ravine for bodies after parts of the truck were found around half a mile from the crash site in Tigbao, Zamboanga del Sur province, some 800 km south of Manila.

''Our troops counted 23 bodies but there were also a lot of body parts strewn all over the place,'' Brigadier-General Raymundo Ferrer, army commander in Zamboanga, told Reuters by phone.

''The number of casualties could actually exceed 30 because the delivery truck was vaporised and the bus was a total wreck.

''We are having difficulty identifying the fatalities because the victims were badly mutilated.'' An army commander said 26 people were killed and 12 injured.

Ferrer said the bus left Pagadian City, about 20 km away, with 55 passengers. It could have picked up more people before the accident in Tigbao, he added.

Major Gary Lachica, a deputy battalion commander, told reporters that soldiers rushed to the scene after hearing loud blasts. ''We're helping evacuate people to safety,'' he said.

Reuters BDP RS1532