Four killed in explosion during Catholic mass in Philippines

Four people have been killed and dozens injured in an explosion during a religious service in the Philippines on Sunday.

The Philippine president blamed “foreign terrorists” for the blast during a mass being held in a gymnasium at Mindanao State University in southern Marawi city, Taha Mandangan.

Regional military commander Maj. Gen. Gabriel Viray III said three women were among the four people killed.

Fifty other worshippers were taken to hospital. Six of the injured were in a critical condition.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the senseless and most heinous acts perpetrated by foreign terrorists upon the Mindanao State University,” president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement.

“Extremists who wield violence against the innocent will always be regarded as enemies to our society.”

Defence secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. told reporters there was a strong indication of a “foreign element” in the bombing, but did not elaborate.

Army troops and police cordoned off the university shortly after the blast and an investigation was launched.

Security checkpoints were set up around the city.

Police Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Peralta told reporters that military and police bomb experts found fragments of a 60mm mortar round in the scene of the attack.

Such explosives fashioned from mortar rounds had been used in past attacks by Islamic militants in the country’s south.

The deadly blast set off a security alarm beyond Marawi city as the Christmas season ushered in a period of travel, shopping sprees and traffic jams across the country. Police and other state forces were put under “heightened alert” in metropolitan Manila, security officials said.

The southern Philippines is the homeland of minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation and the scene of decades-old separatist rebellions.

The largest armed insurgent group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, signed a 2014 peace deal with the government, considerably easing decades of fighting. But a number of smaller armed groups rejected the peace pact and press on with bombings and other attacks while evading government offensives.

Listen to our latest podcast to find out What You Need To Know