ZAMBOANGA CITY, Aug. 17 (PIA) - - an explosion disarrayed the Zamboangueños when an
Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasted inside a bus around 9:20 Thursday
night resulting to the wounding of seven people including a two year old boy.
Police
report revealed that the bus, from Pagadian City bound to Zamboanga City with body number 9224 owned by the Rural
Transit Mananegment Inc. (RTMI) was approaching the bus terminal in barangay Guiwan
when the bomb exploded.
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| photo by RMN -Zamboanga |
Estimated
to be 200 meters away from the said bus terminal, the explosion brought injuries
to 7 of the passengers who were immediately rushed to different hospitals
including a two year old boy who was declared out of danger. One of the blast
victims was reported to be under critical condition
The
explosion also damaged the rear portion of the bus.
“bueno
ya lang poco lang pasahero ya keda na bus cuando ya rebenta el bomba, sino mas
manada pa gayot era ay keda biktima,” (one good thing was that there were only
few passengers in the bus when the bomb exploded, many could have been hurt if
there were more) said one onlooker.
Reports
said most of the passengers have already gone off board before the explosion,
except for the (estimated) 20 passengers who were supposed to go down at the bus
terminal area.
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| photo by RMN -Zamboanga |
Reports
from the explosive ordnance demolition (EOD) said that concrete nails were used
as the shrapnel of the improvised recovered bomb.
Investigation
on the explosion incident is still ongoing.
Meanwhile,
City Administrator Antonio Orendain, who immediately rushed to the explosion scene,
said the city government will aid the victims especially in their medical
expenses.
Orendain stands as the city’s care taker as
City Mayor Celso Lobregat together with some city officials are in Manila to
see DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo for the turnover of P10M financial assistance for
the benefit of the displaced families due to monsoon rains or habagat that hit
Luzon recently. (JPA/ PIA-ZBST)