Philippines bomb blast kills 6 at popular restaurant

Six people were killed and more than two dozen wounded in a bomb blast at a popular Philippines restaurant Friday night.

The motive for the blast in the southern port city of Cagayan de Oro was not immediately clear, police chief Graciano Mijares told AFP.

The victims were mostly doctors and guests of a pharmaceutical company attending a medical conference nearby, and also included a local politician who was hit by shrapnel in the head.

The bomb is thought to have been placed at a table in the restaurant.

Fragments were recovered from as far as 54 yards away.

"I looked around and saw this ball of white smoke," local businessman Noel Arcenas told AFP of the blast. "People were running away bloodied and survivors were dragging at least seven or eight people away from the blast site."

Cagayan de Oro is a peaceful port city about 500 miles south of Manila, although communist rebels and Islamist militants with links to al-Qaeda reportedly operate in the region.