SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao (PNA) — An alert gas station attendant prevented Sunday what could have been a powerful and bloody explosion from a homemade bomb in Ampatuan town, police reported Monday.

Senior Superintendent Alex Lineses, Maguindanao police chief, said a man aboard a blue multi-cab handed over a box to the pump boy of Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Gas Station and then hurriedly left around 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

The gas station was located about 40 meters from the Ampatuan town hall, the town police office and an Army company base command in Poblacion, Ampatuan.

Suspicious of the contents of the heavy box, the boy called in police assistance and, soon after, the bomb disposal experts had come in to safely detonate the explosive device.