Three dead, 33 wounded in Philippine bombing

Three people were killed and 33 others wounded after a man hurled a grenade into a cockfighting arena in the southern Philippines on Saturday, a police official said. More than a hundred people had gathered at the makeshift cockpit in the small rural town of Aleosan when a fragmentation grenade went off, said provincial police chief Superintendent Conrado Salinas. Survivors saw the man who threw the grenade and recognised him as a local resident, Salinas said, adding that he is now being hunted by police. ‘We suspect that the man lost (money) in previous cockfights and he wanted to get even,’ the police chief added. Cockfights are a popular past-time in the Philippines, attracting scores of gamblers who bet on the fights between the birds. The southern Philippines has long been troubled by the widespread availability of weapons such as grenades due to decades of fighting involving soldiers, communist rebels, Muslim separatists and other armed groups.