MANILA, 9 November 2007 — A powerful explosion ripped through a residential village south of the Manila yesterday, killing three people, injuring at least 12 more, and destroying several houses, police said.

Senior Supt. Fidel Posadas, police chief in Cavite province, said a large cache of dynamite stored in one of the houses at Bacoor town likely caused the blast but investigators were still trying to find out what set it off.

Supt. Antonio Yarra, the police chief of Bacoor, said four houses were leveled and 10 were partially damaged in the 4:10 p.m. explosion at Sorrento Subdivision in the village of Panapaan 4.

Yarra gave the latest casualty count and damage report from the site to correct earlier reports that four were killed, 10 were injured and six houses collapsed. As of press time, police said no one was left in the rubble at the blast site.

The identities of the casualties were not immediately available.

Witnesses said the explosion was felt almost a kilometer away, cutting power in the entire village and throwing bodies several meters.

Police also said the blast alarmed shoppers at the nearby Shoemart, who thought the blast was inside the mall. Shards of glass and chunks of metal and concrete also flew several hundreds of meters from the blast scene.

“The impact of the explosion caused the row of houses to collapse,” Posadas told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Yarra said many blasting caps were recovered from the site, indicating that one of the destroyed houses was being used to manufacture explosives for blast fishing.

Posadas confirmed Yarra’s initial report, saying one of the houses was rented by a syndicate involved in the manufacture of dynamites used in illegal fishing activities.

He also confirmed the discovery of hundreds of blasting caps and traces of ammonium nitrate at the blast site.

Posadas said they have ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack in the explosion. “This could be just an accident,” he said.

The row of damaged townhouses is part of a private low-cost housing project, police said.

On Oct. 19, 11 people were killed in an explosion at a shopping mall in the financial district of Makati City.

Police said the blast was caused by an accidental gas explosion, but owners of the mall are disputing the theory. (With input from Agencies