At least three people were killed and 20 injured when a blast ripped through a bus on the outskirts of Manila this evening, police said.
The blast ripped open the rear roof of the vehicle as it traversed a major highway in northern Manila, police said. Northern Manila police and hospitals in the area placed the casualty toll at three dead and at least 20 injured, many suffering from burns.
The blast follows bomb attacks carried out in Zamboanga in the southern Philippines yesterday which left seven people dead and 162 injured. Seven unexploded bombs were later found and disarmed in the area.
Earlier in Manila on Friday, some 300 policemen patrolled major shopping malls amid fears of attacks similar to those in Zamboanga. Police bomb squads responded to a number of telephoned bomb threats at buildings around Manila as well as in Zamboanga today, but no explosives were found.
The security precautions in Manila followed a grenade explosion before dawn Friday that damaged a van in the financial district of Makati but injured no one.
Another grenade was found nearby and safely detonated. Police said the Makati blast was not believed to be related to the blasts in the south.
AFP