Militants take hostages at Philippine school

Islamic militants occupied a primary school and took hostages in a Philippine village on Wednesday, a few hours drive from Marawi city, where fighters linked to the Islamic State (IS) group were fighting a monthlong war, authorities said.

The unrest occurred in Pigkawayan, a farming town about 160 km from Marawi city.

Hundreds of gunmen initially attacked a lightly guarded military outpost at dawn, with many withdrawing. Nut about 30 then took over the school and started using civilians as human shields, the military said.

Captain Arvin Encinas, spokesman for the army division with responsibility for the area, said the gunmen had planted improvised bombs around the school.. He did not know how many hostages had been taken, or if they included children.

Armed forces spokesman Restituto Padilla earlier said the attackers on Wednesday belonged to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), one of four groups in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao that have pledged allegiance to IS.

Local police said the BIFF attack may have been intended to help the militants in Marawi by distracting the military.

Muslim rebels have been fighting for more than four decades for an independent or autonomous region in the south of the mainly Catholic nation, with the conflict claiming more than 120,000 lives.