Nine killed in Philippine shooting spree

Nine people, most of them sleeping children were killed in a farming village outside Philippine capital Manila as a man with a high powered gun went on a shooting spree on Monday. Most of the early reports say that a man with a grudge stole a rifle and ammunition from his boss and went on a shooting spree, while Reuters reports that several people were behind the incident.

Five of the dead were aged 4-12 years. They were sleeping inside their homes in Calamba town in Laguna province when the attacker opened fire with an M-16 rifle, said the Laguna provincial police chief, Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas, reports Associated Press.

Chief Superintendent Ricardo Padilla identified the suspect as Adan Defiesta, caretaker of a vegetable farm in Calamba who allegedly stole the rifle and eight magazines of ammunition from the owner, a retired policeman.

A witness told investigators he prevailed upon Defiesta not to kill him, Padilla said. The same witness quoted Defiesta as saying he was upset that people in the town were making fun of him, according to Padilla. It wasn't clear who or what provoked him. Padilla said police launched a massive manhunt for Defiesta.

“When we interviewed the wounded, they said they just woke to the sound of gunfire and that they were hit,” said nurse Rey Enriquez, who was treating the casualties at a nearby hospital.

The killings came three days after robbers barged into a bank in the same province on Friday and shot dead 10 people in the head, triggering nationwide outrage.