Fatal shooting at Manila International Airport kills mayor, his wife and two others

Manila Airport became the scene of a fatal shooting today.

Manila Airport became the scene of a fatal shooting today. A mayor from the southern Philippines was fatally shot Friday in an attack at Manila’s main airport that also killed his wife and two other people, officials said.

The assailants rode a motorcycle and fired at Labangan Mayor Ukol Talumpa and his wife as they stepped out of Terminal 3, said Manila airport General Manager Jose Angel Honrado. The airport handles both international and domestic flights and was packed with passengers and waiting crowds.

The gunmen then escaped.

Honrado said the mayor and his wife were declared dead on arrival at a nearby air base hospital along with two others, including a 1 ½-year-old boy and a 25-year-old man. Local radio reports said that the man was the mayor’s nephew and the baby had no relations to the victims but was in the crowd outside the terminal.

At least five other people were reported wounded.

Local newspapers have reported that Talumpa, then a vice mayor of Labangan, and one of his nephews were wounded in a similar attack in 2010 in Manila. Last year, assailants lobbed a grenade at Talumpa and his wife but they escaped unhurt. Talumpa was elected mayor earlier this year.

There was no word on a possible motive but political killings and assassinations are common in the Philippines, leaving hundreds of people dead.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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