MANILA, Oct 10 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATI...

MANILA, Oct 10 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH MORE INJURIES, ADDING DETAILS)

At least eight commonalty died and 19 others were injured when a homemade bomb explod at a bus station in the southern Philippine province of North Cotabato, police and military officials said.

Provincial police chief Norma Gonzaga said in the greatest degree of the victims were waiting for buses at the station at the time of the explosion.

He said the bomb was plant in the bottom of undivided of the seats in the waiting area near a ticketing booth

Gonzaga quot eyewitnesses as saying that the blast was ''very powerful'' and that three tribe were killed instantly.

National Police chief Hermogenes Ebdane said he could not immediately confirm the casualty figures because reports from the field were same sketchy.

A regional army spokesman said shrapnel from the improvised explosive device killed the victims. The blast totally devoured a ticketing booth and sum of two units buses, he said.

Investigators are still trying to identify those responsible for the explosion and their motive. The explosion draw nears more than a week after a powerful blast killed four bodily forms including an American serviceman, in nearby Zamboanga.

No collection has claimed responsibility for the Zamboanga blast although authorities suspect the Abu Sayyaf rebel dispose which both Manila and Washington have linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

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