A US navy sailor was missing today after gunmen who identified themselves as communist rebels opened fire on a group of American and Philippine navy personnel on a mountain trek north of Manila.
The mountain-climbers, comprising five US sailors with four Filipino navymen, were descending Mount Pinatubo volcano when the gunmen attacked, triggering an exchange of fire with the armed Filipinos, officials said. The Americans were unarmed.
No one was hurt in the shoot-out but one of the Americans was missing, a US diplomat said.
Private tour operator Rene wise, who arranged the trip, said the missing American was trailing several hundred metres behind his companions when the shooting broke out and was able to retreat. Police said they had launched a search for him.
A senior Philippine official said the missing American might have lost his way down the volcano's slopes after the shoot-out.
The US Embassy in Manila said the five US Navy personnel were ambushed by a group of eight armed people, who identified themselves as members of the New People's Army, a leftist group fighting for a Marxist state in the Philippines for more than three decades.
Fears that the missing American might have been kidnapped were apparently sparked by the recent abduction by Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf rebels of three American tourists and 17 Filipinos in the southern Philippines.
The five US sailors are part of American forces taking part in joint military exercises in the Philippines.