MANILA, Philippines -- The explosion that ripped through
the Glorietta 2 Mall in Makati City early Friday afternoon, killing
eight people and wounding more than a hundred others was caused by
a hard explosive, mostly likely TNT or the military ordnance C4,
police said.
Chief Inspector Raynold Rosero of the Philippine Bomb Data Center
said the explosive went off near an escalator and could have been
exacerbated by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanks in nearby
restaurants.
"We've submitted the evidence to the crime lab for chemical
analysis and we saw that near the scene of [the] explosion were
establishments with LPG," he said.
Rosero said they have yet to determine whether the explosion was
set off by a timer or triggered remotely by cellular phone, the
signature attack of the Al-Qaeda linked Southeast Asian terror
network Jemaah Islamiyah and the local Abu Sayyaf.
He described the explosion as "most likely a deliberate
attack."
Philippine National Police Director General Avelino Razon and
Alfonso Reyes, spokesman of Ayala Corp., which operates the
Glorieta 2 Mall where the explosion occurred at around 1:40 p.m.,
said eight people had been killed.
Makati Councilor JunJun Binay, who has been providing regular
updates on the situation, said the injury count had climbed to at
least 126 -- 98 of these needing hospitalization and 28 other
victims given first aid at the blast site for minor injuries.
Of the injured, Binay said, three are listed in critical condition
and in the Intensive Care Unit of the Makati Medical Center. At
least one other victim is undergoing surgery as of this
posting.
Binay also said at least one of the dead was a Korean.
A partial list of the injured at the Makati Medical Center (see
list at end of article) showed another Korean and a Chinese
national were among the injured.
Police investigators at the scene of the explosion identified four
of the dead as Liza Marquez, Jose Allan de Jesus, Lester Peregrina
and nursing student Janine Marcos. All died of shrapnel injuries.
Another fatality was later identified as Maureen De Leon.
At an earlier press briefing carried live by radio and television,
Dr. Ernesto Santos of the Makati Medical Center said the four
fatalities were dead on arrival and at least two of the wounded
were critical.
Santos said the other casualties all suffered blast
injuries.
Dr. Anthony Golez, spokesman of the National Disaster Coordinating
Council and deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defense,
told INQUIRER.net from the Makati Medical Center that the four died
due to "burns and massive internal bleeding."
"It doesn't look good," he said.
Razon said: "From our assessment this is not what was initially
reported as LPG [liquefied petroleum gas].
"This was a bomb. But beyond that we can't say anything else yet
because we are still investigating. What I can say is it was not
LPG that caused this."
Director Geary Barias, chief of the National Capital Region Police
Office, said they have yet to determine whether the explosion was
caused by a grenade or an improvised explosive device and " are not
discounting anything," including the possibility that the explosion
was a terrorist attack.
Barias also said there had been no intelligence reports prior to
the blast, despite a terror alert issued earlier this month by the
National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, which is composed of
various security institutions like the PNP and the Armed Forces of
the Philippines.
We actually picked up several dead and wounded, Binay said.
He said the explosion left an eight-meter (26-foot) wide crater on
the ground floor and blew a hole through the roof on the second
floor.
"From what I have seen it was a significant explosion and that most
of the dead and injured were all employees," he said.
Witnesses said the blast occurred in a section of the mall with
clusters of stores selling baby clothes and toys.
The explosion had panicked shoppers running out of the mall as
smoke billowed out of the building.
Mall security and police immediately sealed off the area and
shepherded people away as ambulances rushed in to evacuate
casualties.
People leaving the mall told INQUIRER.net said they felt the whole
shopping complex shake as from an earthquake as the strong
explosion happened in the area between the Glorietta 1 and 2
buildings. They also said they saw windows shatter from the
blast.
Witnesses said part of a ceiling collapsed while a concrete wall
was blown out.
Two cars and two delivery vans were buried under wooden planks and
concrete debris outside the mall.
"It was so powerful," clothing store clerk Jeric Balendes told AFP
on the scene, as rescuers applied first aid on his cuts and
bruises.
"The roof just collapsed on us. I could hear my three co-workers
screaming. I got out through a small hole. I don't know if they got
out."
One of the injured, Teresita de La Cruz, 24, recalled thinking:
"Are we going to die here?"
"People were panicking and shoving each other, and running in all
directions. I was very scared," she told reporters outside the
Makati Medical Center.
De La Cruz, a saleslady for a custom sticker company, said the
blast likely originated from somewhere on the second floor near the
escalator. "It was just one explosion, but it was loud and strong,"
she said.
But the police, citing initial reports, said the blast may have
originated from the storeroom of the Luk Yuen restaurant, which was
initially tagged as the site of the blast.
Bomb debris carpeted a 200-square-meter (2,100-square-foot) area,
he added.
"The ceilings are damaged and may collapse," Barias said.
The entrance to the mall, the lobby and the activity center were a
total wreck, buried under piles of wooden planks, slabs of cement,
and parts of the roof.
Rosero said police were clearing the rubble, adding it could be
dangerous for investigators to stay inside the mall to gather more
evidence.
"There are hazards. There is falling debris inside, there could be
a chemical leak [or] high-voltage wires, and the water inside is
knee-deep," he said.
He added that the concrete floor of the area had also been raised
by the blast.
Binay said all fatalities appear to have been recovered although
late breaking news reports on television Friday evening quoted the
Philippine National Red Cross as fearing there could be more
victims trapped beneath the rubble.
Barias also inspected the nearby SM mall to ensure there will be no
other explosions.
The United States and Australia both offered technical help in
investigating the blast, and Australian experts were understood to
be helping Filipino police on the scene.
Binay said roads to hospitals in the city have been secured as
rescue teams continued to scour the area where the explosion
occurred, which the councilor described as severely damaged, for
more possible victims.
Well keep the area evacuated until we know more, Reyes
said.
He also assured the victims and their relatives of assistance from
Ayala Corp.
We will certainly makes sure [that] anyone [who] needs attention
will be able to get it, Reyes said.
Police did not immediately name likely suspects for the attack, but
Islamic extremists were blamed for a bomb attack on a bus near the
site of Fridays explosion. That attack killed four people in
February 2005.
Militants also firebombed a ferry on Manila Bay the previous year,
killing more than 100 people in the country's worst terrorist
attack.
Arroyo's National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales has previously
said the government was not ruling out future attacks on "soft"
targets such as shopping malls.
Following are the names of 34 of the injured rushed to the Makati
Medical Center. The list is current as of 3 p.m. Friday.
Donald Santos
Julia Hernandez
Anna Patria Villareal
Ellen Garcia
Abraham Jose
Ma. Ceronara Estilles
Fely Reyes
Agnes Ramilo
Shirley Boleno
Socorro Yrastroza
Ma. Lourdes Perez
Mutya Santos
Arlene Pansal
Robinson Orlanda
Hernanin Asis
Sally Honopra
Carmen Enriquez
Alberto Gonzales
Regina Montenegro
Christopher Pineda
Hei Wun Kim (Korean)
Queene Ngo (Chinese)
John Henry Pascual
Evangeline de Leon
Jerry Canaban
Elizabeth Liboro
Jeffrey Burser
Maricel Marcelo
Lady Katrina Santos
May Flor Garcia
Angela Maria Soriano
Mary Flor Gopis
Josephine Santos
Mabini Garcia