Injured	Killed
1	1

Date: 27 November 2010
Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/metro/view/20101129-305891/Girl-killed-another-hurt-in-blast

MANILA, Philippines—A two-year-old girl was killed while her teenage cousin was wounded when a grenade exploded on Saturday evening near their house in Manila.

An investigator of the Manila Police District (MPD) said the target of the grenade attack was the girls’ neighbor and executive assistant to the city mayor, Olivio Arce.

Two-year-old Hillary Benito, a resident of Wagas Street in Tondo, was hit by shrapnel and taken to Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Hospital.

However, she died several hours later due to her injuries.

Her 13-year-old cousin, Maida Malinao, remains confined at Jose Abad Santos Mother and Child Hospital due to shrapnel wounds.

Senior Police Officer 3 Lani Hardin, desk officer of the MPD Moriones, Tondo Station 2, said the blast took place at around 8 p.m. on Saturday in front of Arce’s house on Wagas Street.

The children were playing outside their house when a man wearing a ski mask walked by and lobbed an MK2 fragmentation grenade in front of Arce’s house before fleeing. The shrapnel from the explosion hit the two girls.

Benito was declared dead by attending doctors at around 7:55 a.m. Saturday while her cousin was transferred to another hospital.

MPD homicide section head, Inspector Armando Macaraeg, told the Inquirer that Arce, the assistant of Mayor Alfredo Lim, was the target although he was not harmed in the attack. “The suspect threw the grenade outside his house so he was not hurt,” Macaraeg said.

Macaraeg added that the man who had lobbed the grenade was also carrying a gun, according to witnesses.

He said the police had yet to determine what prompted the attempt on Arce’s life.

He told the Inquirer that operatives of the MPD homicide section were conducting follow-up operations to identify and arrest the grenade thrower.