Filipino runs amok; kills 10, wounds 19

MANILA, June 2 (Reuters) A Filipino in a drunken rage hacked dozens of people with a machete today, killing 10 and wounding 19 on the central Philippine island of Samar, a local police chief said.

Chief Inspector Aniceto Tecbobolan, police chief of Calbayog City on Samar, said the drunken man went from house to house in his Gadgaran village, hacking dozens of people, including some relatives, before dawn.

''Eight people, including five children, were hacked to death in their sleep,'' Tecbobolan told reporters, adding two more died at a hospital.

After attacking his sleeping relatives in two houses, the continued his stabbing spree at another home where villagers were attending a wake for a dead neighbour.

Tecbobolan said 19 people were wounded and the man later surrendered to a neighbour.

''He claimed he was too afraid to turn himself to the police because he feared that he would be harmed,'' Tecbobolan said, adding the man knew the consequences of his actions.

Police were preparing charges of murder and frustrated murder against the 39 year-old man now under detention at the city jail.

REUTERS SYU RK1415