5-year-old boy hurt in bus bombing dies in Cotabato hospital

ALEOSAN, North Cotabato--- The five-year-old child hurt in the bombing of a passenger bus here on Tuesday morning has died in the hospital in Cotabato City, the police said.

The fatality was one of seven passengers injured when a powerful blast ripped through the Mindanao Star Bus carrying them and other passengers while at a stretch of a national highway here.

Six other passengers hurt in the explosion, a three-year-old child, a five-month-old infant, and the adults Rodolfo Castillo, 67, Lester Bautista, 17, Haron Solaiman, Sr., 24, and the 25-year-old Masid Benjamin, are now confined in different hospitals.

The explosive used in the attack, hidden underneath one of the seats in the bus, went off while its driver was maneuvering through a stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Barangay San Mateo here.