Around Friday midnight a gunman stormed Resorts World Manila opening fire and setting part of the casino on fire, which resulted in the death of at least 37 people. Despite speculations that it was an ISIS terror attack police regards this as a robbery.
Both the presidential spokesman and the police director stated that the casino attack was not a terrorist attack.
”This particular situation in Manila is not related in any way to a terrorist attack,” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told reporters.
A gunman who set fire to a casino in the Philippine capital leading to the deaths of at least 36 people on Friday was not a terrorist, the president’s spokesman said.
“There’s a robbery angle,” National Police Chief Rolando Dela Rosa told reporters. “Right now, we can say that this is not an act of terror.”
In a TV briefing Metro Manila police director Oscar Albayalde said that all victims died of suffocation after the gunman poured gasoline on a gambling table and set it on fire. He then headed to a chamber and stole 113 million pesos ($2.3 million) worth of casino chips, which were later recovered.
The gunman burned himself to death after breaking into a room in the adjoining Maxims Hotel, located near the airport’s Terminal 3. Albayalde said that the number of the victims may rise. (Zolpidem)
SITE Intelligence Group tweeted that ISIS has claimed responsibility of the attack. Chief Dela Rosa reacted to this statement by saying:
“They can claim whatever they want, and [say] whatever propaganda they would like to say.”
