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Posted: 2017-06-13 07:10:52

Posted June 13, 2017 17:10:52

Five construction workers have escaped the Philippine city of Marawi after hiding from Islamic State (IS) fighters in a basement for three weeks.

The team are from a neighbouring province and had the misfortune to be hired on a job in Marawi before extremists took the town on May 23.

"We were hiding in the house of the Barangay village chief," said one of the men, Jenniver Velazques.

The Philippine military dropped bombs right across the area where they were hiding.

"They fell right beside us," Mr Velazques said.

"All the windows in the house were broken.

"We would just lie face down on the ground in the basement. We put things against all the door openings so that we would know if somebody tried to enter."

The workers — including a 16-year-old boy — are all Christians and knew they would be executed if the Islamist extremists caught and questioned them.

The fighters have posted online videos of the murders of Christians and government workers that they had captured.

"We thought it would be our end," said Gerald Docallos, who has two young children, including a three-month-old baby.

Workers yelled 'Allahu Akhbar' but were still shot at

They survived on tins of sardines, meatloaf and corned beef, and drums of water that were stored near their construction site.

They were with a group of five Marawi policemen who had been trapped by the fighting.

The policemen are Muslims, but they too would have been murdered by the fighters who have pledged allegiance to IS.

On Monday one of the policemen said to the construction workers that they had no choice but to leave.

"Jun said 'it's time to go' because we don't have anything to eat anymore. We'll die anyway so we decided to take our chances and go out," Mr Velazques said.

"We came out yesterday. When we came out all of us went out together. We climbed up the wall jumped over to the other side onto the road.

"As soon as we hit the ground we were shot at — that's why my companions have wounds.

"When we came out of the house we were wearing civilian clothes, white shirts, when we jumped over the wall we were shouting 'Allahu Akhbar' so they would not touch us — but they still shot at us. My brother was hit."

'Lots of bodies' on the streets of Marawi

Two of the five construction workers were shot in the leg but kept running.

They could not find any military and were worried about being caught by more IS fighters, so they spent last night in another house.

This morning they finally ran out.

"We ran about two kilometres," Mr Docallos said.

"We saw lots of bodies on the street. I didn't look at them because I was running."

Local authorities said there could be as many as 1,500 people still trapped in Marawi, including 30 people trapped in a mosque, but the construction workers saw no sign of that.

"I don't think there's many civilians still in there. I think we're the only ones," Mr Vellazques said.

Topics: islam, religion-and-beliefs, law-crime-and-justice, terrorism, philippines

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