Hundreds of thousands of Filipino Catholics joined the feast and annual procession for a black statue of Jesus Christ in central Manila on Monday despite an alleged plot by Muslim terrorists to explode a bomb along the route of the devotees.

Some 250 people were injured, but not from a bomb explosion. The riotous pulling of the carriage bearing the Black Nazarene, which is the highlight of the religious event, bruised many while some fainted and suffered hypertension. TV reports showed one man broke his neck and three alleged pickpockets were badly beaten by an angry crowd before police secured them. Hundreds of medical personnel and first-aiders deployed in the area attended to the injured.

Some 15,000 security personnel, including K-9 units and bomb squads, guarded the 6-kilometre procession from the Rizal Park to the Quiapo Church, where the statue believed to have healing powers is housed. A sea of humanity held two ropes to pull the carriage of the Black Nazarene throughout the procession lasting until midnight.

Cellphone signals were jammed in the Quiapo district to prevent terrorists from remotely detonating any explosive device. Telecommunications networks agreed to block the signals as part of a security plan laid out by the police on Sunday, when President Benigno Aquino III announced that terrorists may disrupt the event.

Aquino cited intelligence reports that bomb makers from an unnamed Muslim militant group and the Muslim kidnap-for-ransom gang Abu Sayyaf, which is suspected of holding an Australian man hostage, are involved in the terror plot. Muslim militants have carried out deadly bombings in the southern island of Mindanao, where Muslim rebels are fighting for a separate homeland.

A multitude ranging from 3 million to 9 million people reportedly flocked to Quiapo and Rizal Park on Monday to join the pulling of the carriage of the Black Nazarene and kissing or wiping of the statue with a cloth. Religious devotees believe that touching the face, hand or foot of the statue can heal any sickness while holding on to the ropes may result in answered prayers. A towel wiped on any part of the Black Nazarene is also believed to have healing powers.

The Catholic belief that the life-size wooden statue causes miracles stemmed from its survival through fires, earthquakes and World War II.

The image of Jesus Christ holding a cross was originally not black when it was brought to Manila from Acapulco, Mexico, by Spanish colonisers in the 17th century. But a fire that struck the galleon ship carrying the statue charred the image.

There were actually two identical statues of the Black Nazarene brought to Manila. The other one that was kept in a church in Intramuros, the former seat of government of the Spaniards, was destroyed during the bombing of Manila in February 1945.

The existing Black Nazarene in Quiapo Church also has a copy. The statues are alternately paraded in Quiapo streets every Jan. 9, the Feast of Quiapo, and on Good Friday to protect each from the wear and stress during frenzied processions.