Dozens dead after
gunman torches Philippine casino: police
A masked gunman set fire to a gaming room at a casino in the Philippine capital on Friday, igniting a toxic blaze that killed 36 people, authorities said, but they insisted it was not a terrorist attack.
A masked gunman set fire to a gaming room at a casino in the Philippine capital on Friday, igniting a toxic blaze that killed 36 people, authorities said, but they insisted it was not a terrorist attack.
The victims suffocated inside one of
the main gambling venues of the upscale Resorts World Manila, while dozens of
other people were injured in a panicked crush to escape, police said.
The gunman committed suicide inside a
hotel room by burning himself about five hours after storming the casino with
an M4 assault rifle and a bottle of petrol that he used to start the fire,
police chief Ronald Dela Rosa said.
Dela Rosa and other police chiefs
insisted the assailant was not carrying out a terrorist attack, pointing out he
did not shoot anyone, and said it appeared to be a bizarre robbery attempt by a
"deranged" man.
"This is not an act of terror.
There is no element of violence, threat or intimidation that leads to
terrorism," Dela Rosa told reporters. However 36 people died from inhaling
smoke from a fire that spread quickly because of flammable carpet on the gaming
room floors, according to Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde.
The gunman initially disappeared into
the chaos of smoke and running people, leading to a five-hour manhunt through
the complex, which also includes a hotel and shops, according to Dela Rosa.
He said the assailant, who appeared to
be a foreigner because he spoke English and looked caucasian, was found just
before dawn in a hotel room having committed suicide.
"He lay down on the bed, covered
himself with a thick blanket, apparently poured petrol on the blanket and
burned himself," Dela Rosa said.
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Terrorism fears -
Before the gunman had been killed and
police had confirmed any motive, there was an unconfirmed claim of
responsibility from the Islamic State group. US President Donald Trump also
branded it a "terrorist attack". But Filipino officials were adamant
it was not related to terrorism.
This particular situation in Manila is
not related in any way to a terrorist attack," presidential spokesman
Ernesto Abella told reporters. Dela Rosa said the man, acting alone, walked
into one of the gaming rooms and fired the rifle at a large television screen,
then poured gasoline onto a gambling table and set it alight.
He said the man then fired again at a
stock room containing gambling chips and filled a backpack with chips worth 113
million pesos ($2.3 million). The man left the room and went upstairs to the
hotel section, but left the backpack, according to Dela Rosa. The police chief
said 18 of 54 injured people were in hospital. He said the others sustained
only minor injuries.
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Screaming guests -
People inside the casino recounted a
terrifying ordeal when the shooting broke out. "I was about to return to
the second floor from my break when I saw people running. Some hotel guests
said someone yelled 'ISIS'," Maricel Navaro, an employee of Resorts World,
told DZMM radio.
ISIS is another acronym for the
Islamic State group. "When we smelled smoke, we decided to go for the exit
in the carpark. That's where we got out. Before we exited, we heard two
gunshots and there was thick smoke on the ground floor," Navaro said.
Outside the complex, relatives of
people caught inside waited on Friday to hear news of their loved ones.
"Our daughter called us past midnight saying she was in the VIP section of
the casino and there was smoke and they were suffocating," Gil Yongco, 42,
told AFP.
"We are very worried about her.
We haven't heard from her." Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte imposed
martial law last week across the southern region of Mindanao to crush what he
said was a rising threat of IS there.
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