Manila: Local government officials increased police presence near churches in southern Philippines as a schoolteacher and a nurse were killed and three more churchgoers were wounded when two motorcycle-borne men fired a grenade via a launcher at a church in a southern town, police and other sources said.

Reinforcements from the regional office were deployed to secure Pikit town in North Cotabato following the death of Felomina Ferolin, 54, head nurse of the Pagalungan Community Hospital, and Gina Cabilona, 39, a schoolteacher, when two motorcycle-borne men fired from an M203 grenade launcher at the door of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Poblacion village at eight on Wednesday night, according to senior police inspector Mautin Pangandigan in a belated report that reached police headquarters in Manila’s Quezon City on Thursday.

“Ferolin died instantly while she was praying. She was declared dead on arrival at Midsayap community hospital, while Cabilona succumbed as doctors were trying to save her life,” UCCP General Secretary Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza told Gulf News in Quezon City.

Another church member, schoolteacher Virginia Manolid, 63, remained in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit of the Kidapawan Doctors’ Hospital Inc. in Kidapawan City, said Marigza, adding two other church members, businessman Jeremias Dandan, 60, and his son Jerome, 28, were wounded but in stable condition at the Kidapawan Hospital.

“Those who died were seated at the back of the church when the attack occurred. There were 40 worshippers who attended the midweek evening service,” explained Marigza.

Deploring the attack, Marigza said, “No circumstance or reason can justify such a deplorable act on a house of worship.

“We ask our members to remain sober-minded, Let us not do anything that will further escalate the violence [in southern Philippines],” he added.

In a radio interview, regional UCCP head Pastor Jerry Sanchez said, “We have not received any threat. Perhaps our faith is being tested. We are the friendliest people in Pikit. We participate in every town activity.”

Hoping for a fast-track investigation, Senior Police Superintendent Aldrin Gonzales called on witnesses to come forward and tell authorities what they saw.

The restive southern Philippines is the base of Filipino-Muslim rebel groups that have forged pro-autonomy peace settlement with the government in 1976, 1996 and in 2014.

These include renegade members of rebel groups and the Abu Sayyaf Group which has been blamed for kidnap-for-ransom, beheadings, bombings, and other terror activities in the south.

Abu Sayaf has active links with Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian conduit of Al Qaida. It has recently declared support for Daesh.