Gunmen have shot dead a town mayor and three other people at Manila Airport in the Philippines on Friday, sending travellers fleeing for safety.

The mayor of the town of Labangan in Zamboanga del Sur province, Ukol Talumpa, was killed together with his wife, an 18-month-old baby and one other person.

Manila Airport manager, Jose Honrado, said four other people were wounded in the incident.

Honrado, speaking alongside Manila police officials at a news conference, said that Talumpa was waiting for a ride with his family outside an airport terminal when the gunmen on a motorcycle shot him and others at close range.

“Airport security force chased the gunmen but they escaped on their vehicle in the heavy late-morning traffic outside the terminal,” Honrado said.

He added that the authorities did not know the identity of the attackers nor the motive behind the attack.

“Government agencies are trying their best to determine the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” Honrado said.

Talumpa, a member of the political opposition, won a hotly contested electoral contest for mayor of Labangan in last May’s local elections.

News reports in the Philippines said Talumpa had survived several other attempts on his life, including a September 2012 grenade attack in Pagadian city where he was vice-mayor, and a 2010 shooting in Manila that left he and a nephew wounded.

Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport is named after prominent opposition politician Benigno Aqunio, who was shot dead there in 1983 as he arrived home from self-exile. His son, also Benigno Aqunio, is now the country’s president.