Friday, August 15, 2008

Grenade Fails To Explode Inside Zamboanga Cinema

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 15, 2008) – Police have recovered Friday a fragmentation grenade inside a cinema in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Police said the grenade was discovered by a janitor inside the Mindpro mall in downtown Zamboanga at around 5.40 p.m. “Somebody must have thrown the grenade, but it did not explode. We also recovered the grenade’s safety lever,” said SPO2 Wilfred Paz, a member of the local police bomb squad.

He said the janitor was sweeping inside the Cinema 5 when he saw the grenade and informed police about it. “From where we recovered the grenade, we are sure it was tossed from afar, probably at the rear part of the cinema,” Paz told reporters.

It was unknown how the grenade was smuggled inside the mall, but police said many would have been injured or killed had it exploded. A grenade also exploded in one of the mall’s cinemas several years ago and wounding theater goers.

No group or individual owned up to the foiled attack, but Zamboanga City had been previously bombed by Abu Sayyaf militants whose group is tied to Al-Qaeda terror network. (Mindanao Examiner)

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