Philippine billiard hall shooting kills eight
Five attackers fired assault rifles at a packed billiard hall in the Philippines, killing at least eight people in an assault apparently meant to avenge the recent killing of one attacker’s son, officials said today.
Six other people were wounded in the attack on Saturday in Lanao del Sur province’s Balabagan town, said Mayor Amer Sampiano.
Family members of at least one of the attackers apparently had a lingering feud with another family, which the man suspected was behind his son’s death last month, police Chief Superintendent Akmad Mamalinta said.
The assailants were riding in a van and fired into the billiard hall crowd, which an attacker believed included some of his rivals, Mamalinta said.
Seven people were killed instantly and another died in a hospital, Sampiano said. Mamalinta had earlier reported the shooting claimed 10 lives.
“They apparently spotted a lone quarry in the billiard hall then opened fire, killing many, including children and women who had nothing to do with their feud,” Sampiano said. “It was a massacre.”
He said he was concerned that the feud would worsen if the victims’ families decided to retaliate.
Mamalinta said witnesses had identified one attacker, and police were searching for him.
Balabagan, a coastal town of about 30,000 farmers and fishermen, is about 520 miles south of Manila.
Deadly family feuds, locally called “redo,” are common in many parts of the Philippines’ volatile south, where a large number of unlicensed guns and weak law enforcement often lead to violent confrontations between rival groups.
