Man Kills 9, Wounds 17 in Philippines Knife Rampage

MANILA, Philippines – A man armed with a 21-inch-long knife killed nine people, including six children, and wounded 17 others in a rampage early Saturday in a central Philippine province, police said.

The man first attacked and wounded five members of his cousin's family with whom he lived in a remote village outside Calbayog city in central Samar province at around 2 a.m. local time, said Senior Police Officer Jessie Gianan, desk officer at the Calbayog police station. One of the cousin's sons, aged 7, died later in a hospital, police said, correcting an earlier report that two sons had died.

The man then barged into a neighbor's house, where he stabbed and hacked to death a 37-year-old pregnant woman and her three daughters and two sons, aged 1 to 9. Two daughters survived, Gianan said by telephone.

He entered two other homes where five people were sleeping, killing two men, and then returned to a wake where he had been drinking earlier and attacked everyone in his path, Gianan said.

A total of 17 people were wounded, he said.

The man then surrendered to another villager who turned him over to the authorities. It was not immediately clear what prompted the rampage.

The pregnant woman's husband apparently quarreled earlier with the assailant at the wake. The husband, a fisherman, was at the Calbayog fishing port when the attack occurred, a niece of the woman said by telephone from a local funeral parlor. She gave no other details.