MANILA: Nine people were killed and seven were wounded in a clash on Wednesday between two Muslim clans in the southern Philippines, an army commander said.

Colonel Pedro Soria, brigade commander in the Cotabato area on the southern island of Mindanao, said there was a brief car chase before the two armed groups exchanged automatic gunfire at a bridge linking two towns.

“It was not an ambush,” Soria told reporters as troops rushed to the scene to prevent more bloodshed. “It was a shootout. We’re still investigating the incident because we don’t know what and who started the fighting. Soria said two of the dead were local residents caught in the crossfire, while the two sides together lost seven men.

Seven were wounded, including Norodin Matalam, a former vice governor of Maguindanao province, and his wife, and five bystanders.—Reuters