Philippines blasts leave six dead

Bombs believed to be planted by Muslim extremists ripped through the main shopping district of a mostly Christian city in southern Philippin...

Bombs believed to be planted by Muslim extremists ripped through the main shopping district of a mostly Christian city in southern Philippines on Thursday killing six people and wounding 144.

Shouts of 8216;8216;there8217;s a bomb8217;8217;, 8216;8216;another explosion8217;8217;, 8216;8216;run8230;run8217;8217; rent the air as terrified shoppers and shopkeepers ran on to streets littered with wreckage, glass and mutilated bodies.

The military said that the blasts were the work of radicals fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the Roman Catholic nation and that investigators were looking into the possible involvement of the militant Jemaah Islamiah group.

8216;8216;All threat groups are suspects in this incident, including the Jemaah Islamiah8230;and others,8217;8217; armed forces deputy spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Danilo Servando told reporters in Manila.

The twin explosions in Zamboanga, came amid a heightened security alert across the country after bomb attacks on the Indonesian island of Bali last weekend killed over 180 people.

Jemaah Islamiah is also suspected of involvement in the Bali attacks. Police said that they were questioning 16 people, including two Turkish nationals and a Malaysian, over the Zamboanga explosions.

Asked if Muslim extremist groups might be involved, Zamboanga Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat said: 8216;8216;Most probably. They are the only ones who would do this. One can only weep at what these terrorists have done.8217;8217;

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A spokeswoman for the Zamboanga city government said that three women, a man and a child had been killed and that the death toll could rise because two of the wounded were in a serious condition. No foreigners were hurt in the blasts, police said.

The first bomb, which exploded around noon in the Shop-O-Rama mall, wrecked cars, flung motorcycles down the street and tore open shuttered shops. One man was thrown through a plate glass window. Police were seen later dragging away the bodies.

Heavily armed troops then ringed the area as investigators brought in sniffer dogs to check for further explosives.

Investigators said that the first blast occurred in or near the vegetable section of the crowded Shop-O-Rama, one of the most popular malls in Zamboanga. Thirty minutes later, an explosion rocked a store nearby. Police found two other bombs and detonated them.