Breaking: Gun Fire, Explosions at Philippines Resort
BLITZER: We're continuing to follow the disturbing breaking news out of Manila in the Philippines where there are reports of major gunfire and an explosion at a casino resort right in the city. This is the first video we're getting. Police and SWAT Teams, they have been deployed. It's a multilevel mall that has casinos, high-end shopping, among other resort activities. It's called Resorts World Manila. CNN's Ivan Watson is joining us right now. You're in Singapore, Ivan, but you're familiar with this area. What are you hearing?</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Most of the information we're now getting is from Philippines news sources and our sister network, CNN Philippines. Right now, what we have is an unfolding situation right now taking place in the area known as Resorts World. And we're getting accounts of gunfire taking place there, of hotel employee who have fled the scene and are describing to our sister network at least one gunman wearing a mask somewhere on the second floor of the Resorts World in Manila. Now, I've been to this area before, Wolf. I've stayed in this area. There is essentially a compound of hotels here. It's close to the international airport in the enormous capital of the Philippines. There's a Marriott Hotel there, for example, a number of other hotels, four-star hotels. There's also a shopping mall and some kind of a casino complex as well. Again, this is very much an unfolding situation right now, but what we're getting right now are reports via our sister network CNN Philippines of some kind of a shooting situation with police being rushed to the area, with Philippine SWAT services being rushed to the area. And we're still trying to get our heads around exactly what is taking place around these reports of gunfire at the Resorts World complex in the Philippines capital right now -- Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Reports of gunfire, Ivan, and also explosions inside as well. That also raises alarm bells. Give us a perspective, Ivan. Unfortunately, there's been a tremendous amount of deadly violence in the Philippines recently. Tell our viewers about that.</s>WATSON: Well, and we have no information about any connection here. We don't have any claims of responsibility at this point. But, yes, you have had, just last week, the Philippines government having to declare martial law on a southern island of the Philippines after an ISIS-affiliated group took over a town known as Malawi, and essentially set fire to a prison there, took control of central streets there, and killed a number of Philippine security forces there. And there's been ongoing violence there. And, of course, the Philippines government having to declare martial law. But that is on a southern island of the Philippines, quite some distance from the Philippines capital. We don't have a connection, per se, between these two very different locations. In addition to that, you have the ongoing violence, Wolf, of the government's war on drugs. It has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people. And that's a separate issue of violence that's been taking place.</s>BLITZER: Hold on a moment, Ivan. One of our CNN Philippines reporters, Camille Abadicio, is joining us. What are you learning, Camille?</s>CAMILLE ABADICIO, CNN REPORTER, CNN PHILLIPINES (voice-over): Really, a series of gunfire and what seems to be explosions coming from Resorts World Manila. We saw 10 heavily armed members of the SWAT team entering the area. Right now, I believe they are engaging with a gunman inside. Right now, I'm huddled with police and other members of the media at the perimeter a block away from where the incident happened. There was a reported shooting incident on the second floor of the resort and casino past midnight. An employee says guests suddenly rushed out of the building. Some of them jumped from the second floor just to escape, and some of them said that there was a gunman wearing a mask and that he opened fire. Now, I talked to a security guard also that we talked to off camera and he said there was more than one attacker but we have yet to confirm that. The regional police spokesperson just spoke to us and said that they can't divulge the information that they have right now for the safety of the police and the people still inside. I also talked to a man who came running from the building and he told us he was on the third floor when he heard loud gunshots and he had to hide inside the bathroom with other guests. He really was very disoriented and scared, and he was just lucky because he saw a security guard who helped him escape. He also said there was smoke inside the building. So it's unclear if there's an ongoing fire but we're seeing fire trucks here around the area. There are also a lot of police and more SWAT teams coming. And earlier, there were already injured guests rushed to the hospital -- Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Very disturbing development in Manila at this resort, called Resorts World Manila. You heard Camille Abadicio, our reporter there, who described the police and firefighters and SWAT who have engaged in apparently more than one gunman there. Bot only gunshots were heard but explosions at the same time. We're going to stay on top of the breaking news, all of the news. Ana Cabrera picks up our special coverage.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Ana Cabrera. I want to welcome our viewers around the world and here in the U.S. Again, with breaking news. Right now, we are following reports of an attack unfolding at --