The cause of the explosion remains unknown as of this posting but two persons were seen injured and taken by stretchers towards a waiting ambulance.
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Regional police chief Manuel Guerlan said a ring of checkpoints had been thrown around the city’s exit points.
“A thorough investigation is being conducted to determine the cause of the explosion”, he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who served as a long-time mayor of Davao before assuming the presidency in June, was in Davao but has not issued any statement. “We call on all the people to be vigilant at all times”.
A view of the site of a blast in Davao City, Philippines, where 10 people were killed.
Five men and five women were killed, Paolo Duterte said.
Noel Vilanueva, medical director of Davao Doctors Hospitals, told CNN Philippines that four patients had been brought to the facility, one of whom required surgery for a leg injury.
Davao is part of the southern region of Mindanao, where Islamic militants have waged a decades-long separatist insurgency that has claimed more than 120,000 lives. Duterte became well known for bringing relative peace and order to Davao with hardline security policies, while also brokering local deals with Muslim and communist rebels.
Duterte had earlier on Friday shrugged off rumours of a plot to assassinate him, saying such threats were to be expected.
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The younger Duterte said that while a city-wide lockdown following the incident isn’t necessary, the Davao City Police Office immediately ordered for night bars to be closed and placing at least 2 checkpoints per station in place.
