6 hurt in North Cotabato bus bombing
ALEOSAN, North Cotabato -- Six were hurt, among them two preschool children and an infant, in an explosion inside a bus on Tuesday morning while at a stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway here.
Masid Benjamin, 25, Rodolfo Castillo, 67, Haron Solaiman, 24, and the three children, ages 5, 3 and five months, sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of their bodies.
They were immediately rushed by a responding police team and personnel of the Aleosan Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office to different hospitals for treatment.
In an initial statement, the Aleosan Municipal police said the driver of the Mindanao Star Bus carrying the victims was maneuvering through a stretch of the highway in Purok Narra in Barangay San Mateo here when a blast ripped through the rear part of the vehicle.
The explosion that hurt the six passengers also shattered the window shields of the bus.
Army and police bomb experts are still trying to determine the type of explosive used in the attack.
Investigators from the Aleosan municipal police have initially theorized that the explosive was rigged underneath one of the seats in the bus, possibly while on a stopover in one of the terminals along its route. (John Unson)