TACURONG CITY, Sultan Kudarat—Eight persons were wounded in an explosion here Monday morning perpetrated by a man now being hunted by authorities, police said.
Senior Supt. Raul Supiter, Sultan Kudarat police director, said the suspect threw an improvised explosive device beside a fried banana vendor not far from the Valdez Mother and Child Hospital and Sultan Kudarat Electric Cooperative main office at around 8:30 a.m.
“It was an improvised bomb that will explode when lobbed,” Supiter said.
The police in Sultan Kudarat have been placed on heightened alert following the bomb attack, the seventh in Region 12 or Soccsksargen region since Tuesday last week.
Police and bomb experts found cut nails and metal fragments in the blast site along the busy national highway in front of a private university.
The injured include the banana vendor – Janice Alacdo, 34, a resident of Barangay New Carmen here – and seven workers of Sukelco, who were to attend a forum in an open space fronting the cooperative’s office.
The motive of the attack remained unknown but the Tacurong City police are following up a lead that could eventually arrest the perpetrators, said Supt. Romeo Galgo Jr, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office 12.
Supiter said after the blast, the suspect fled on foot toward a waiting motorcycle driven by an accomplice.
The cooperative’s employees sustained minor injuries and are now out of danger.