December 27, 1993, New York Times, 6 Killed and 130 Are Wounded In Blasts at Philippine Cathedral,

Attackers tossed grenades into a packed Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines Sunday evening, [Dec, 26,] killing at least 6 people and wounding more than 130.

President Fidel Ramos said today that he had ordered a hunt for those who carried out the attack.

Eight hours after the attack, suspected Christian militants retaliated by firing two grenades at a Muslim mosque. One exploded, but there were no casualties, the police said.

Red Cross officials put the death toll from the attack on San Pedro Cathedral at 7, but the police in Davao said they had confirmed 6 dead.

A spate of Christmas bombings in the predominantly Catholic Philippines coincided with talks between the Ggvernment and Muslim guerrillas on ending a 21-year separatist rebellion in Mindanao and other southern islands.

On Christmas Eve, unidentified men lobbed grenades into a market in the Mindanao province of Misamis Occidental, killing 5 shoppers and wounding 48, the police said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. A similar grenade attack on San Pedro cathedral on Easter Sunday in 1981 killed 17 people.

The attack on Sunday came during the main evening Mass when the cathedral was packed with thousands of worshipers.

The Rev. Leonardo Dublan told reporters he saw what looked like a grenade rolling down the aisle toward him.

"I wasn't able to speak," he said. "I just signaled the people to duck."

One grenade exploded in front of the altar and was followed by two others, sending shrapnel scything through worshipers as they stampeded for the doors. A fourth device failed to detonate.

The bombing of the Davao cathedral and the attack on the mosque dramatized a long-smoldering Christian-Muslim conflict on Mindanao island, regarded by the country's Muslim minority as their ancestral home.