Marines pursue Briton’s abductors

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Marine troops intensified its search operation against the gunmen who seized a British national inside a government university in Tawi-Tawi, officials said.

Col. Frank Gudani, deputy chief of operations of the Armed Forces Southern Command, said elements of the 9th Marine Battalion Landing Team have pinpointed the island where the perpetrators fled after failing to abduct Percival Timothy Showers.

Showers, 47, an oceanographer at the Mindanao State University, was dragged into a jeep by unidentified gunmen who had barged into his living quarters inside the university campus on Sunday night.

But some hours later, Showers, who has been in the Philippines since 1990, put up a fight and escaped by hiding in a swampy area until dawn yesterday when he was found by Marines.

The authorities said Showers claimed he jumped out of the vehicle as they were approaching a bridge and was able to hide himself in the darkness.