Philippines’ car blast kills one, injures 48

ONE person was killed and 48 others injured Friday as a parked car exploded in the southern Philippines, with the local authorities blaming the blast on al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militants.

Witnesses told police a parked car went up in flames and was torn to pieces in a powerful mid-afternoon blast that shattered glass panels in a commercial section on Zamboanga city’s outskirts.

“There was a suspected bomb in the car,” Senior Superintendent Angelito Casimiro, the city police chief, told reporters.

The explosion occurred in front of a pub and across the street from a bus terminal, he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast and the lone fatality was not immediately identified, he said.

Most of the other casualties were cut from flying glass shards and are being treated at nearby hospitals, Casimiro added.

Zamboanga city Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco alleged the blast was linked to a plan by the Abu Sayyaf armed group to spring 57 comrades detained at the city jail.

She demanded that the national government remove the prisoners from the city and transfer them to a detention facility elsewhere so the city would not be targeted by bombings.

“This is an SOS call for the 57 inmates to be removed and transferred for the safety and protection of the city,” Climaco told reporters.

The Abu Sayyaf, a loose band of a few hundred militants founded with seed money from Al Qaeda, has been blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history.

These have included the bombing of a ferry in Manila in 2004 in which more than 100 people died, and repeated kidnappings of foreigners in the southern Philippines who are usually ransomed off for huge amounts.