MEP: A bomb attack has killed at least 14 people and injured 71 others in a popular night market in the Philippines’s city of Davao, officials said.
The blast took place close to the high-end Marco Polo hotel that is popular with tourists and business people, city spokeswoman Catherine de la Rey told AFP news agency on Friday.
Police in the capital Manila are on high alert following the deadly blast.
Meanwhile, the Philippine government has blamed the Abu Sayyaf militant group behind the explosion in the home city of President Rodrigo Duterte, prompting him to declare a “state of lawlessness”.
He said: “These are extraordinary times and I supposed that I’m authorised to allow the security forces of this country to do searches.”
A spokesman for the militant group Abu Sayyaf has also claimed responsibility for the attack, but the president said authorities are considering the possibility that drug syndicates were behind it.
