DAVAO: Eleven people including many high school students were killed when a bomb exploded aboard a bus in the southern Philippines yesterday, military spokesmen said.
The bus operated by the Rural Transit company was travelling through the town of Maramag in the strife-torn island of Mindanao when the bomb went off, said regional spokesman Major Christian Uy. The blast also injured 21 people, he said.
Many of the victims were high school students who had just boarded the bus as it passed a school in the town, said Lieutenant Norman Tagros, spokesman for a local infantry brigade. The bomb went off almost immediately after the students got on.
Tagros said extortion was being eyed as the likely motive. The bombing was the latest in a series of attacks on the bus company. Last month a bomb exploded aboard a Rural Transit bus in Mindanao, leaving four people injured. AFP
