‘Bomba! Bomba!’

"There’s a bomb... another explosion... Run! Run!"

Screams of panic rent the air as terrified shopkeepers ran through narrow streets littered with debris and mutilated bodies after twin midday blasts ripped through the main shopping district of Zamboanga City yesterday, killing six people and wounding over 180 others.

"Bomba! Bomba!" people screamed, as primal fear sent them running in every direction as the two bombs went off. When the smoke cleared, a body of a man was lying in the middle of the street, his head blown off.

"Oh my God," was all one man could say as his eyes were riveted to the gruesome scene in front of him.

Allen Yusuf, his face heavily bandaged, told television reporters he was "buying cigarettes just outside Shop-O-Rama. I heard a loud explosion and it knocked me out."

Asked if Muslim extremist groups might be involved, Zamboanga Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat said "most probably. They are the only ones who would do this. One can only weep at what these terrorists have done."

"All threat groups are suspect in this incident, including the Jemaah Islamiyah ... and others," Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Lt. Col. Danilo Servando told reporters in Manila.

The downtown commercial district took on an aspect of a ghost town as department stores closed shop after the bomb attacks, sending shoppers and kibitzers moving about aimlessly.

Guillermo Erago told reporters while he was undergoing treatment at the Zamboanga Medical Center that "at first, we didn’t know what hit us. We just heard a loud explosion. My first thought was how to escape this hellish place and get to safety for my family’s sake."

Erago added that he was "thrown by the impact. Then I saw people lying on the ground, bloodied, crying for help while many of us were rushed away, bloodied, to safety."

Other victims said a stampede ensued as many shoppers located on the upper levels of Shop-O-Rama panicked as the first bomb exploded.

Police ordnance experts found two more bombs in the area and detonated them.

Troops later arrived to restore order and cordon the area off as bomb experts with bomb-sniffing dogs began their search for any other bombs that may have been hidden in the area.

The twin explosions come amid the heightened security alert across the country after the bombings in Bali, Indonesia over the weekend, for which the Jemaah Islamiyah is believed responsible. – Roel Pareño