Blast in Philippine village kills two people

MANILA, Nov 8 (Reuters) A powerful explosion ripped through a residential village south of the capital Manila, killing two people today, police said.

Fidel Posadas, police chief in Cavite province, said several two-storey houses were damaged by an explosion at about 4 p m (local time) in a middle-class residential area in Bacoor town.

''We're still investigating what caused the explosion,'' Posadas told reporters. ''Our investigators found some fragments of what could be an explosive device but we could not conclude a bomb caused it.'' The Philippines is battling long-running communist and Muslim insurgencies. The Southeast Asian country has suffered bomb attacks in the past but they have mainly been in the volatile south or in large cities such as Manila.

Posadas said the blast was so strong that the bodies of a man and a woman were thrown several metres.

REUTERS MS RN1536