Manila - At least sixteen people were killed in a fierce gunfight after suspected robbers, some armed with automatic weapons fitted with grenade launchers, fired on police during an attempted heist in a Manila suburb, police said yesterday.

Highway police and special operatives acting on an informant's tip were staking out the warehouse of a transport firm, but they were spotted by the gunmen, who arrived in sports utility vehicles.

'They went berserk after discovering they were surrounded,' said Metropolitan Manila's police chief Leopoldo Bataoil. 'They fired all around, including at a flammable tanker beside a warehouse.'

A man and his seven-year-old daughter, on board a passing car, and three other civilians died in the shootout late on Friday night in Paranaque, a residential and commercial suburb.

Ten suspected robbers were killed, as were members of the police's elite Special Action Force. Three police officers were also wounded.

As the gunfight raged, a vehicle with two gunmen on board sped away, but was chased by the police. The pair abandoned the vehicle and grabbed a motorcycle from a passing motorist, but were intercepted and shot by the police.

The authorities say the gunmen were members of the notorious Ozamis and Waray-Waray gangs, blamed for several big armed robberies in the capital region. Some of those heists were carried out by gunmen dressed as policemen.

The police recovered two M203 grenade launchers, four M16 rifles, two pistols, a fragmentation grenade, a bolt cutter, a sledgehammer, and hand-held radios from the crime scene.

In a statement yesterday, Philippine National Police chief Jesus Verzosa said the encounter was a 'well-coordinated intelligence operation that resulted in the neutralisation of a notorious and well-armed organised crime group'.

General Verzosa said it took place moments before the gunmen planned to carry out a robbery. He said at least three of the gunmen were able to escape in a car they commandeered after firing a grenade at a gatehouse.

'I think that my men underestimated the firepower of the suspects,' Gen Verzosa said.

The ABS-CBN television network reported that four suspects are in police custody. The police have launched an inquiry into claims by eyewitnesses that some of the civilian casualties may have been accidentally caused by the police during the gunfight.

The Commission on Human Rights said it would investigate the shootout.

Additional information from AP

Panic shots

'They went berserk after discovering they were surrounded. They fired all around, including at a flammable tanker beside a warehouse.'
MR LEOPOLDO BATAOIL, Metropolitan Manila's police chief