Manila bus blast kills 3, injures 22

A bomb destroyed a bus in the Philippine capital late on Friday and authorities said at least three passengers were killed and 22 wounded in the latest in a series of explosions in the Roman Catholic nation.

The explosion, at around 10 pm, was on the cheapest form of public transport — a non air-conditioned bus travelling to the city suburb of Novaliches and suspicion again swung to Muslim radicals fighting for an independent state in the South.

‘‘I was inside when it happened,’’ Merly Villareal, who was on the bus when the blast happened, said. The bus was gutted and its roof blown off. Body parts littered the floor.