The President of the Philippines blamed “foreign terrorists” for a bomb explosion that killed four people on Sunday, injured dozens of other Catholic faithful in the south of the country and sparked a security alarm, including in the capital, Manila, where state forces were placed on alert.
The suspected bomb, which police said was made from a mortar round, exploded and hit students and teachers attending mass at a Mindanao State University gymnasium in southern Marawi City, said Taha Mandangan, the head of state campus security, told The Associated Press by phone.
Dozens of students and teachers ran out of the gym and the injured were taken to hospitals.
Regional military commander Maj. Gen. Gabriel Viray III said four people were killed by the explosion, including three women, and 50 others were taken to two hospitals for treatment.
Six of the injured were fighting for their lives in a hospital, said Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr. of the Islamic province of Lanao del Sur, which has Marawi as its capital.
“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the senseless and heinous acts perpetrated by foreign terrorists at Mindanao State University,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement. “Extremists who carry out violence against innocent people will always be considered enemies of our society.”
Marcos did not explain why he immediately blamed foreign militants for the high-profile attack. Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. later said at a press conference, without explaining, that there was a strong indication of a “foreign element” in the attack.
The chief of staff of the armed forces, General Romeo Brawner Jr., said the bombing could be retaliation by Muslim militants for a series of setbacks in battles.
“We are looking at possible angles,” said Brawner. “It could be a retaliatory attack.”
He cited the killing of 11 suspected Islamist militants in a military offensive backed by airstrikes and artillery fire on Friday near the town of Datu Hoffer in southern Maguindanao province.