Suspected communist rebels in the Philippine capital fired a rocket-propelled grenade and several bullets on Monday into a building that used to house offices of Petron Corp, the country's largest oil refiner.
Police said the attack was similar to one in April on the Manila headquarters of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp, the Philippine unit of oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell, and could be related to recent hikes in fuel prices.
No one was injured in either attack and damage was minimal.
Police said the gunmen fired at the sixth floor of the Gercon Plaza building in Manila's financial district before dawn and then sped off in two taxis. The grenade punched a hole in one window and other panes were shattered by bullets.
Petron is no longer in the building but US-based cosmetics firm Avon Products Inc has offices there.
"We are suspecting the communist New People's Army rebels to be behind the attack," Prospero Noble, chief of the capital's Southern Police District, told reporters. "The weapons used and the manner of attack were almost identical to an earlier attack on the Shell building."
After the attack in April, police and army officials had said the gunmen could be members of a leftist militant group opposed to several rises in the price of gasoline and diesel this year.
But Noble said police were not discounting other motives for Monday's incident, including a labour dispute involving any of several businesses occupying the 15-storey building.
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