3 security guards shot dead at polling station in southern Philippines

Three security guards were killed Monday when gunmen opened fire at a polling station in a restive region of the southern Philippines, police said, as millions of Filipinos voted in national elections.
Elections are a traditionally volatile time in a country with lax gun laws and a violent political culture, but police said this season had been comparatively peaceful. The deadly shooting happened shortly after voting got under way in Buluan municipality on Mindanao island, a haven for multiple armed groups ranging from communist insurgents to Islamist militants. Former mayor Ibrahim Mangudadatu told AFP that people inside the school being used as a polling station ran for cover when the shooting started. A fourth guard was wounded in the attack, said Maguindanao provincial police spokesman Major Roldan Kuntong.
It came after five grenades exploded outside a polling station in Datu Unsay municipality late Sunday that left nine people wounded. Minutes after that attack, a grenade exploded in the neighboring municipality of Shariff Aguak. – Agencies