The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Zamboanga

Twenty-two people were wounded by a grenade lobbed into a crowd of New Year revellers in the Philippines, the latest in a spate of blasts in the restive south, the army said Thursday.

In the capital Manila and in nearby suburban areas, a child was killed by a stray bullet while 346 people were wounded by powerful firecrackers set off to welcome 2009, the police and the health department said.

Army Captain Emmanuel Garcia, head of a military security task force, said an unidentified man threw the grenade into the crowd at a park in the city of General Santos on Mindanao island late Wednesday. "At least 22 people are wounded in the grenade explosion and they have been rushed to hospitals," he said.

No one has claimed responsibility and Garcia said authorities were investigating.

However, security forces have been on heightened alert for possible attacks by Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels who have been locked in intense battles with troops since August.

In Zamboanga city, also in the south, police early Thursday disarmed a powerful homemade bomb left near a bus depot, the military said.

The device was made from an 81-millimetre mortar bomb and rigged to a timing device, similar to previous bombs used by MILF militants, it said.

A grenade attack Tuesday on a police outpost in General Santos wounded a policeman and two other people.

The same day, a suspected militant was killed when the improvised explosive device he was carrying went off at a police checkpoint near the town of Esperanza, also on Mindanao.

In Manila, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said 346 people were wounded by firecrackers in the capital and nearby suburbs.

He said there were no official reports of deaths, although the police said one person died after being hit by a stray bullet. Police said 16 others were hurt also by stray bullets.

Police and health authorities earlier gave a smaller figure for injuries in Manila, but later released an updated figure.