Philippine mayor among four dead in Manila airport ambush

MANILA: Gunmen opened fire outside Manila international airport Friday, officials said, killing four people including the mayor of a town in the southern Philippines, where political violence is endemic.

Terrified men and women screamed and cried while a man, apparently fatally wounded, lay face down on the pavement outside the passenger terminal in a video clip uploaded to the local GMA television network´s website.

"The mayor and his family and some security escorts were attacked," Manila airport general manager Angel Honrado told reporters, adding one of the dead was the mayor of Labangan town in the troubled southern region of Mindanao.

Ukol Talumpa, a member of the political opposition, won a hotly contested election for mayor of Labangan in last May´s elections, defeating the incumbent who is a political ally of President Benigno Aquino.

The official, his wife, other members of his family and their bodyguards were shot at by at least two men as they stepped out of the passenger terminal shortly after getting off a flight from the southern Philippines, Honrado said.

Four people were killed and four others wounded in the broad daylight shooting, he said, adding "the mayor and his wife" were among the dead.

He said he could not confirm television news reports quoting unnamed eyewitnesses as saying the two suspects were wearing police uniforms.

Airport security forces chased after the gunmen but they escaped on a motorcycle in the heavy late-morning traffic outside the terminal, he added.

Honrado, speaking alongside Manila police officials at a news conference, said the authorities did not know the identity of the gunmen nor the motive for the attack.