Bomb kills eight, wounds 70 in Philippine mall

MANILA, Oct 19 (Reuters) A bomb explosion in an upscale shopping mall in the Philippine capital Manila today killed eight people and wounded at least 70, police and local officials said.

Police initially suspected the blast in the Makati business district was caused by an exploding cooking gas cylinder in a restaurant, but police sources later said they found traces of plastic explosives at the site.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bomb was apparently left near a cellphone repair shop in Glorietta, a sprawling three-storey complex of department stores, high-end fashion boutiques, restaurants, other shops and cinemas.

A general alert has been issued for the rest of the city and for the international airport, officials said. A meeting of the National Security Council was called for later in the day.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

Jonjon Binay, a city councillor, said four people were killed on the spot by the blast and four more died in hospital.

He said hospitals were treating at least 70 wounded people, many of whom were hit by shards of glass.

The blast, which occurred during lunch-hour, spread panic in the city of 12 million people, which has in the past been the scene of attacks by Muslim separatist rebels.

''The damage was extensive,'' said Geary Barias, the city police chief.

Ambulances and police were quickly at the scene, which was cordoned off. Wounded, some of them bloodied, were brought out on stretchers.

Blocks of cement had fallen from an upper storey of the shopping mall, hitting cars parked below and spreading a film of dust. Scores of windows in nearby shops were shattered.

Charlie Nepomuceno, an employee at the Glorietta mall, said the powerful explosion appeared to have centred on an escalator which was near the cellphone repair shop.

''It left a deep crater at the foot of the escalator,'' he said. ''It also ripped open the roof of the building. I saw a man thrown on to the roof who had lost a leg.'' He said a badly mangled body of a woman was near the escalator.

Manila has largely been spared a spate of bomb attacks by Muslim rebels that have plagued the southern Mindanao region.

But it has been hit in the past. A series of bomb blasts in 2000 killed at least 22 people.

In February 2004, more than 100 people were killed when a bomb planted by Abu Sayyaf rebels sank a ferry near Manila Bay, the country's worst terror attack.

REUTERS ARB HT1552