Botched coup bid in Philippines ends

By Karen Lema and Raju Gopalakrishnan

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine military and police teams stormed a luxury hotel in Manila on Thursday to end a short-lived coup attempt by a small group of soldiers and others who had called on the army to mutiny.

Government forces fired teargas into the lobby of the Manila Peninsula Hotel and used an armored personnel carrier to batter down its glass doors before storming in under cover of repeated bursts of fire in the air.

There were no casualties.

The rebel soldiers, a senator, former Vice-President Teofisto Guingona and a few clerics who had occupied the plush icon in the sprawling city of 12 million people surrendered and were arrested.

"We are going out for the sake of the safety of everybody," their leader Senator Antonio Trillanes earlier told reporters. "For your sake, because we will not live with our conscience if some of you get hurt or get killed in the crossfire. We cannot afford that."

It was the latest in a series of coup attempts to plague the Southeast Asian nation since dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted two decades ago.

Thursday's drama attracted hundreds of curious onlookers, but no one voiced any support for those inside the hotel, and there were no reports of unrest within the military.

Most of the guests had been evacuated before the assault, but over 100 people, including hotel staff and journalists, were caught in the midst of the action.