Two left dead after gang attacks tourist resort
Security is being tightened in the Philippines after an armed gang attacked a beach resort.
Soldiers, helicopters and patrol boats are hunting the 20-strong gang which left two dead and three wounded.
The tourists were attacked at the Pearl Farm resort.
According to Military Chief of Staff Diomedio Villanueva, the gang was last seen in a rural fishing village where it took four civilians hostage as human shields.
He commented: "Our soldiers are pursuing the buccaneers... Where villagers reported seeing them with the hostages."
The gang, armed with grenade launchers, was seen off by private security at the resort. They hijacked a motorboat and later freed the two civilians in the boat.
The military said the attackers meant to take foreign hostages but were not likely to be members of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim group that kidnapped dozens of mostly foreign tourists last year.
