5 hurt in grenade blast near N. Cotabato chapel

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - – Suspected extremists blasted a grenade near a Christian worship site in Carmen town this province at dawn Monday, wounding five people and causing panic in surrounding villages.

Capt. Tony Bulao, spokesman of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, said three men pulled off the bombing.

He said one of the three men arrived at the scene on a motorcycle, pulled out a grenade from his pocket and hurled it near the chapel of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Barangay Ugalingan in Carmen, and then fled.

The grenade went off not far from a house owned by the Tropa family, wounding four members, namely Amy, 53; Chabelita, 12; Ading, 16; and John Lloyd, 6.

Also injured in the blast was 16-year old Marielle Montayer, who sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of  the body. – With Jaime Laude