The Philippine National Police said there are trapped local police officers in Marawi City but they do not know how many of them are.

“There are still unaccounted for. We don’t know what happened to them. There are trapped especially those local police in Marawi City that lives downtown, we lose contact”, PNP Director Ronald Dela Rosa said Tuesday.

“We don’t know if they were captured or if they are hiding right now. No contact”, he said.

Dela Rosa said reports that a police chief has been beheaded is untrue.

“There are reports at first. There is an information that Senior Inspector Freddie Solar was beheaded but when his body was recovered, it’s not.”, he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte said last week the chief of police in Malabang town in Lanao Del Sur was decapitated while on his way home from Marawi City.

Dela Rosa confirmed that a Special Action Force tank is in possession of the Maute Group.

“That’s true. That’s one of the object of recovery. We need to recover that,” he said. .

He said the tank was supposed to help reinforcement of the capitol.

“It was ambushed… one of the tires was damaged…. (it) fell into a canal and cannot be maneuvered and the crew were wounded”, he said. Alanna Ambi/DMS