A 34-year-old Filipino was killed Monday by an unexploded mortar shell inside a military camp in Nueva Ecija north of Manila, where Filipino and American troops are holding artillery exercises, reported the local newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer on its website Wednesday.

Renato Amadon was killed when one of the mortar rounds he was collecting exploded, said Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Zosimo Paredes, who serves as executive director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement.

His body was found Tuesday morning near an old firing range below a hill inside the military camp, Paredes said, adding that similar incidents occurred in the past despite repeated warnings to civilians to stay away from the military camp Fort Magsaysay.

Fort Magsaysay is one of several training sites of the ongoing U.S.-Philippine Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) 2006 military exercises, in which more than 5,000 U.S. troops and hundreds of Filipino soldiers are involved.

The Balikatan is held annually under the Visiting Forces Agreement signed in 1998 between the two countries.

Source: Xinhua