Wife of mayoralty candidate wounded, one dead in Abra vote count shoot-out

BAGUIO (AFP) - One man was killed Thursday when shooting broke out in a violence-plagued area of the Philippines as votes were being counted, police said.

The wife of a mayoral candidate was wounded in the shoot-out in the flashpoint northern province of Abra, where at least eight other people have been killed in campaign-related violence.

Security staff shot and killed the gunman at a high school where votes were being counted, a police spokesman said.

Mid-term elections for local and national posts were held across the Philippines on May 14, but the votes in many areas are still being counted manually in thousands of school halls around the country.

Abra's only congressman, Luis Bersamin, was assassinated in Manila in December.