3 hurt in Cotabato grenade blast

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – A security guard and two others were wounded in a grenade blast that rocked a ward at the Notre Dame Hospital here near midnight Sunday.

Emilio Cairos, 24, Noraisa Pangalian, 21, and her sister Baisa, 18, suffered shrapnel wounds in different parts of the body. The Pangalians were watching over a sick relative at the hospital.

Responding policeman arrested a certain Ismael Usop, who was said to have hurled the grenade in one of the hospital rooms.

Usop is a known adversary of Ben Canoy, one of the patients in the hospital. Canoy is being treated for a gunshot wound he suffered in an alleged shootout.