Police eyeing local crime group behind Tulunan blast

Investigators are eyeing a local crime group behind Wednesday's bomb attack near a bus stop in Tulunan, North Cotabato, the Philippine National Police said Thursday.

PNP chief Police General Debold Sinas directed Police Regional Office XII to assist the local police in looking into the incident that killed a 53-year-old fruit vendor and injured five others.

Sinas said police are validating intelligence reports that an individual, who claimed to be the spokesman of Al Khobar Group, was demanding an amount from the Yellow Bus Line (YBL) and made a threat of bomb attack.

PRO XII chief Police Brigadier General Michael John Dubria, however, was not discounting the possibility that other threat groups were behind the blast.

Initial investigation disclosed that a bomb was detonated at a waiting shed and bus pick-up point at the time when a YBL bus made a stop to unload passengers.

The right side of the bus was hit, police said. —Anna Felicia Bajo/KBK, GMA News