Police in the Philippines say that five children are among the dead after a man went on a shooting spree early Monday in a town south of Manila.

The gunman strafed several houses, killing eight people and wounding six others.

Five of the dead are children between the ages of four and 12 who were sleeping inside their homes in Calamba town when an unidentified attacker opened fire with a M-16 rifle, said the Laguna provincial police chief, Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas.

Rojas says the lone suspect escaped, and police are investigating.

©AP Photo/Bullit Marquez

Mylene Neri, the widow of slain Manila police officer PO3 Francisco Neri, stays next to the flag-draped coffin of her husband during a hero's burial, May 18, 2008 at Manila's South Cemetery. Neri and another police officer were killed as they responded to a robbery and the killing of a lawyer-businessman who had just withdrawn money from a bank in Manila last week.

He says a family feud may have been responsible.

"When we interviewed the wounded, they said they just woke to the sound of gunfire and that they were hit," said nurse Rey Enriquez, who was treating the casualties at a nearby hospital.

The killings come three days after robbers barged into a bank in the same province and shot dead 10 people, triggering nationwide outrage.

National police Chief Avelino Razon said Sunday his men were looking at the possible involvement of a known robbery gang in the bank slayings, but declined to give details.