Breaking: At Least 36 Killed After Bloody Shooting in Philippines Casino
At least 36
people have been killed after a gunman stormed a casino in Manila, Philippines firing
shots and setting gaming tables alight before burning himself to death.
Most of the
victims are believed to have suffocated on smoke from the fires as panicked
guests and gamblers clambered over each other to flee the scene of what police
have described as a botched robbery attempt.
Chilling photos
from the scene show victims lying down while others were seen being
carried out of the building.
Reuters reports
that the suspect, a white “English speaker”, raced into the Resorts World
Manila complex shortly after midnight and fired an assault rifle at betting
machines and TV screens, before pulling out a can of gasoline, pouring it over
gaming tables and setting them ablaze.
About 50 have been rushed to hospitals. Image: Sun |
He then stuffed
his rucksack with 311m Philippine pesos (£1.7m) of casino chips before fleeing
in the mayhem, hours before police found him dead in one of the hotel rooms.
National police
chief Ronald dela Rosa said:
“He burned himself inside the hotel room 510.“He lay down on the bed, covered himself in a thick blanket and apparently doused himself in gasoline.”
The casino chips
were in a bag in the toilet.
Heavily-armed
police swarmed the hotel in the moments after the robbery as horrified
witnesses claimed it was a terror attack.
ISIS initially
claimed “lone wolf soldiers” carried out the attack, but Dela Rosa has
dismissed the claims.
“We cannot attribute this to terrorism. We are looking into a robbery angle because he did not hurt any people and went straight to the casino chips storage room.”
The Philippines
has been on heightened alert amid a crisis in the south of the country, where
troops have been battling Islamist rebels since May.
OJPals,
please share your thoughts and prayers below!
@OJ’s Blog EXCLUSIVE
Email: olumidejohnson.blogs@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment