COTABATO (Philippines) - A VILLAGE official was killed and five others were wounded in a grenade attack in the southern Philippines, the military said on Monday.

Armed men lobbed a fragmentation grenade into the residence of a local village official in the town of Pikit on Mindanao island late on Sunday, it said.

The official escaped unhurt but one village councilor was killed and five others who were also in the house were wounded, said Colonel Dickson Hermoso, the local army chief.

Col Hermoso said police were investigating the motive for the attack, but said initial reports indicated it could be a personal grudge.

The attack occurred amid heightened security in the southern Philippines, where troops have been engaged in pitched battles with rogue Muslim separatist rebels since August. -- AFP