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MANILA: Philippine police said Wednesday that "negligence" was the cause of a powerful explosion in a Manila shopping mall that left 11 dead and over a hundred wounded.
Manila police chief Geary Barias said civil and criminal charges can be filed against those responsible for the basement area in the Glorietta mall where the blast occurred on October 19.
Asked by reporters if the blast could be blamed on an accident, Baris replied, "negligence would be a better term."
"We will now determine in the next stage: who is responsible for the 11 deaths and more than 100 injuries," Barias told reporters.
The explosion was likely caused by a mixture of gases in the basement, possibly from a malfunctioning septic tank or a diesel tank, the police official said.
Barias said police and foreign investigators agreed the explosion was not caused by a bomb and cited a report by the Australian Federal Police team that helped investigate the blast.
The Australian team, which has since left the country, concluded that there was "no evidence to suggest that the explosion had been caused or initiated by an improvised explosive device," said Barias.
The Australians ended their investigation after concluding it was not an act of terrorism, he added.
The Glorietta mall is owned by real estate giant Ayala Land Inc. but the basement portion of the mall had been leased to another company.
Ayala Land has said it will wait for the official report from the Philippine National Police.
Ayala Land's spokesman Alfonso Reyes said the company declined to comment on the incident until the final report of the police had been released.
"We are hoping that the national police will release its report on the blast as soon as possible so we will be able to evaluate the findings and be able to come up with a response," Reyes added.
Earlier, Ayala Land had denied that there was any malfunction of the septic tank and that their own technical team found no likely errors which could have caused the massive blast
- AFP/yb
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