A powerful blast injured 10 Christians at Christmas Mass today including a 9 year-old girl.
Roman Catholic priest Fr. Romeo Villanueva surveys the damage to his chapel earlier today. (Daily Mail)
10 people were injured when a bomb exploded at a Catholic Church during Christmas Mass in the Philippines.
The priest was among the injured.
The Daily Mail reported:
A crude bomb exploded this morning in the roof of a Roman Catholic church at a police base on a Muslim-dominated southern island in the Philippines yesterday wounding six people.
The Catholic priest celebrating the early morning Christmas mass was among those wounded, said military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Randolf Cabangbang.
About 100 people were at the service in the main police base on the island of Jolo, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, a small Islamist militant group with ties to al Qaeda, Cabangbang added.
‘We’ve placed our troops on alert to prevent similar attacks on churches, shopping malls, parks and transport terminals,’ Cabangbang continued.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for several bomb attacks on the Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo since the early 2000s and for kidnapping priests and nuns.
Hat Tip Gini