Police open fire at passenger after knife threat causes panic at Iloilo airport
The passenger was told repeatedly to surrender a knife found during baggage screening, but he allegedly refused to comply.
A man (left) who was to board a flight to Cebu at Iloilo International Airport ended up being shot by a police officer, after he brandished a knife while running around the terminal. (Image: Facebook/Clloyd Luna Dayon Cdo)
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A man was shot by a police officer at Iloilo International Airport in the Philippines on Jan 28, after he allegedly tried to stab enforcement officers who were responding to a commotion following a security screening.
An eyewitness at the airport told online news channel News5 in the Philippines that people at the airport suddenly started running in panic after noticing a man holding a knife.
The incident was said to have happened around 4.45pm.
A video posted by a Facebook user showed the man running while pointing a knife at pursuing officers. Screams could be heard in the airport terminal, followed by the sound of a gunshot.
Earlier, the man was having his bag checked as part of routine security screening before he entered the boarding area for a departing flight to Cebu, news reports said.
When a knife was detected, he was told to surrender it but he refused.
The situation escalated when police officers at the airport arrived at the scene to check and they repeatedly asked the man to surrender the knife.
He then took the weapon and allegedly tried to stab the officers, but was later shot near the shoulder area in what the authorities described as an act of self-defence, Panay News reported. The news publication covers news in Western Visayas, where Iloilo City is.
Witnesses said that the man was carrying just a sling bag and had no companion or luggage. No other people were hurt.
The man, who was variedly reported by news outlets as being in his 40s to 50s, was taken to the Western Visayas Sanitarium and General Hospital in the adjacent town of Santa Barbara for medical treatment, and later transferred to the Western Visayas Medical Center in Iloilo City.
The airport resumed normal operations after the incident, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said.
