MANILA (Reuters) - A powerful blast ripped through a bus at a terminal in the troubled southern Philippines on Monday, killing six people and injuring 27 others, army and police said.
Cesario Darantinan, police chief in Davao del Sur provinceon Mindanao, said the bus was waiting for passengers at aterminal in the town of Digos when an explosive device went offinside the vehicle.
"It could have been a crude bomb that was set offremotely," Darantinan said. "The explosion was so powerful thatthe bus was almost broken into two."
Police initially reported seven people were killed butlater revised the toll to four killed on the spot and two whodied in hospital. The military also confirmed six people werekilled.
Twenty-seven people were wounded, Lieutenant-Colonel LyndonPaniza, commander of an army battalion in the area, toldreporters, adding that troops were checking hospitals in thevicinity to verify if there were any more victims.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, thesecond such incident since July this year.
Three people were killed and 25 were wounded when a crudebomb exploded inside a bus in the same town on July 24.
Darantinan said the owners and managers of a local bus firmoperating in the area had been receiving threats after they hadturned down extortion attempts by a criminal gang known as "alKhobar".
(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnanand Jeremy Laurence)
