Investigators to scour Glorietta underground for blast clues

Investigators will have to scour the Glorietta 2’s underground structure to find out if the blast started from the basement of the shopping mall in Makati City, which claimed the lives of at least nine people, and hurt over a hundred others on Friday. In a press conference in Makati City on Saturday, Manila police chief Director Geary Barias said investigators would work 24 hours a day and dig deeper into the incident by interviewing workers of the Look Yuen restaurant, which was heavily damaged by the blast. He said the workers would likewise be asked to identify the items that were kept inside a common storage room shared by Look Yuen with three other stores in Glorietta. The blast was believed to have started from the storage room, based on earlier reports. Also, Barias said authorities would ask information from people who were reportedly engaged in construction activities at the mall’s basement, three days before the explosion. He said the “seat of explosion" could have stemmed from the “underground" of the mall. “Because ‘yong crater, di crater ‘yon. That is the stairs going to the basement na natuklap ang flooring, so the pressure came from underground…’yong explosion occurred meters away from the stairs." Meanwhile, explosive experts from the Philippine National Police said during the press conference that the mall’s basement was inundated by tons of debris from the ground floor. They said the basement was also submerged in knee-deep water, making it hard for investigators and rescuers to pass through the underground area of the establishment. DzBB said it would take at least six hours to drain water from the basement. The experts estimated that about 10 kilos of explosives shook portions of the establishment. They were looking into the possibility that a mixture of grease, oil, and water, from the basement, could have triggered the explosion. The explosion site was earlier found with traces of RDX, the main ingredient in making C-4 military grade plastic explosive. Authorities said extractors and cranes were needed to lift the debris that fell on the basement. They feared that the debris might lead to the collapse of the posts holding the structure. - GMANews.TV