Arson eyed in General Santos City mall blaze

A fire which, witnesses say, was started by a blast, ravaged a commercial mall in southern Philippines' General Santos City early yesterday.

According to a report by the Radio Mindanao News (RMN) network, the blast occurred at a bakeshop inside the KCC Warehouse Plaza around dawn Monday, starting a blaze that took four hours to put out.

The Bureau of Fire Protection has not made an official statement about the fire.

But press reports said the blaze occurred just days after Abu Muslim, allegedly a leader of an extortion syndicate, warned businessmen in the area that they faced retribution from his group for alleged crimes against Moro inhabitants of the city.

KCC Warehouse, is one of the biggest shopping malls in the city and has more than 100 tenants, including popular fast food chains, jewellery stores, boutiques and footwear shops.

Over a thousand employees work in the mall. The fire yesterday occurred less than a week after another shopping mall was razed in the same southern city.

According to reports, two people were seen fleeing from the building before the fire broke out.