At least 29 civilians were massacred in a struggle between political clans in the Maguindanao province in the southern Philippines on Monday, the national news agency PNA reported.

"This is a gruesome massacre of civilians unequaled in recent history," the presidential adviser on provincial matters in the southern region of the country, Jesus Dureza, was quoted by PNA as saying.

According to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, about 100 gunmen from the so-called private army of the province's incumbent governor, Andal Ampatuan, intercepted on Monday morning a convoy of political rivals in the forthcoming provincial elections near the town of Shariff Aguak.

The convoy was on the way to file the nomination of Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu to contest the governorship of Ampatuan in the Maguindanao province next year.

About 50 civilians from the convoy, including some journalists accompanying the convoy, were abducted and later 29 of them, including the candidate's wife, were shot dead and beheaded.

"Even women and journalists were not spared. There must be a total stop to this senseless violence," Dureza said.

Dureza has asked the government to place the Maguindanao province under a state of emergency.

Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, Jr., a spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said in a local television broadcast that 21 bodies - 13 female and eight male - have so far been recovered.

Meanwhile, presidential political adviser Gabriel Claudio said the president of Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was shocked and in total outrage over what happened in Maguindanao, PNA reported.

"Justice will be served and the perpetrators punished, whoever they are," Claudio was quoted by PNA as saying.

JAKARTA, November 23 (RIA Novosti)