Second Manila shopping mall hit by explosion

Oliver Teves

Sunday, May 21, 2000 | 8:55 a.m.

MANILA, Philippines - A bomb exploded in Manila's largest shopping mall Sunday, killing one person and injuring 11 others in the second attack on a shopping center in the capital in four days, officials said.

The bomb was placed in a corner of a women's toilet at a movie theater at the SM MegaMall, police chief Edgar Aglipay said. The blast toppled a concrete toilet divider wall, he said.

The explosion came just four days after a powerful blast at the Glorietta Mall injured 13 people.

Muslim separatists have threatened to launch attacks against Philippine cities in retaliation for a military offensive in the southern Philippines. But the largest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, denied involvement in Sunday's blast.

Aglipay described the bomb as an improvised homemade device that was different from Wednesday's bomb.

Mary Ann Bea, who works in a nearby shop, said she saw smoke billowing out of the theater, which others said was playing the movie "Armageddon."

"I heard people shouting and screaming for their friends," she said. "I was crying in panic."

Security has been tightened at shopping malls throughout the northern Philippine city since Wednesday's bombing.

"The terrorists are trying to bring down the will of the government to go against kidnappers and cowardly terrorists," said Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado.

The explosions come after a series of deadly bombings that have hit the southern Philippines since February, when 40 people were killed in a blast on a ferry in Ozamis City. Last month, several blasts followed a military offensive against Muslim rebel positions.

No group has claimed responsibility for those bombings, but the military blamed the rebels, including the smaller but more radical Abu Sayyaf group.

The Abu Sayyaf is holding 21 mostly foreign hostages on Jolo island and another group of about seven children and two teachers in Basilan province.