Blast kills 14 as Philippine president visits hometown

An explosion at a packed night market in the home city of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte killed at 14 people on Friday and wounded dozens more, officials said, but the cause of the blast was not immediately clear.

The blast tore througha street market outside the high-end Marco Polo hotel, a frequent haunt ofDuterte, who was in the southern city of Davao at the time but was not hurt.

"We were having ameeting and we heard a very huge explosion. The first thing we thought was'it's a bomb'," said John Rhyl Sialmo III, 20, a student at the nearbyAteneo de Davao University.

"The area wherethere was the explosion was a massage parlour. So we saw these men and womenfrom that place in their uniform, they went to the school lobby to seek help.They were soaked in blood."

Presidential spokespersonErnesto Abella, speaking to CNN Philippines, described the blast as an"unspecified explosion".

"There is nothingdefinite about it but it has resulted in the death of ... at least 10 persons,and injury of about 60," Abella said. Police later said two of at least 30people taken to hospital had since died, bringing the toll to 14.

Regional police chiefManuel Guerlan said a ring of checkpoints had been thrown around the city'sexit points.

"A thoroughinvestigation is being conducted to determine the cause of the explosion,"he said. "We call on all the people to be vigilant at all times."

Duterte is hugelypopular in Davao, having served as its mayor for more than 22 years before hisstunning national election win in May, garnered from the popularity of apromised war on drugs.

His election hasprompted a spike in drug-related killings, with more than 2,000 people killedsince he took office on June 30, nearly half of them in police operations.

Duterte has typicallyspent his weekends in Davao, in the far south of the archipelago nation, sincetaking office, so his presence there on a Friday was not unusual and he hadgiven a televised news conference earlier in the day.

His son Paolo Duterte,who is vice mayor of the city, told Reuters that his father was nowhere nearthe scene of the blast, which happened around 10:30 pm, and afterwards was safeat a police station.

Five men and fivewomen were killed, Paolo Duterte said. There was no immediate claim ofresponsibility.

"It's a sad dayfor Davao and a sad day for the Philippines," Paulo Duterte said later ina statement.

Davao is located inMindanao, a large southern island beset by decades of Muslim insurgency. Theregion is also home to Abu Sayyaf, a rebel group loosely linked to IslamicState and notorious for making tens of millions of dollars from kidnappings.

However, Davao itselfis largely peaceful and Duterte has been credited with transforming it from alawless town to a southern commercial hub for call centres and offshorebusiness processing services.

Duterte had earlier onFriday shrugged off rumours of a plot to assassinate him, saying such threatswere to be expected.

Asked on Thursdayabout the same rumour, presidential spokesman Abella described Duterte asheroic and said: "He eats that for breakfast, it’s not something new tohim."