DHAKA: Five people were injured on Sunday when motorcycle-riding men hurled a grenade into a church in the troubled southern Philippines in a city known for Muslim rebel activity, officials said.

One of two men on the motorcycle threw the grenade into the Roman Catholic church in a suburb of the city of Zamboanga just as a group of senior citizens were meeting there, police and district officials said.

Four senior citizens and one passer-by were injured, said district chief Jodifer Arquiza.

‘It (the motive) is unlikely to be personal. What can they get from these senior citizens? Perhaps this is a message,’ he told reporters, according to The Straits Times.

BDST: 1353 HRS, FEB 02, 2014