MANILA, May 20 (Xinhua) -- A suspect of a massacre in which eight people were killed in Calamba City, near the Philippines' capital of Manila, was shot dead following an encounter with police Tuesday afternoon.

    Police said that the suspect, Bernabe Fiesta, opted to shoot it out with pursuing police teams but was outnumbered and outgunned when cornered at the house of his uncle in Calamba City.

    "He chose to fight it out and the consequence was he was killed," Calabarzon regional director Ricardo Padilla said, cited by Philippine TV network GMA News.

    Padilla said his men were able to monitor the movements of Fiesta when the suspect returned to the house of his uncle, retired policeman Florencio Peria, shortly after Monday's predawn massacre.

    Padilla said "stay-behind" police forces deployed saw the suspect return to the house and called on him to surrender.

    "When he chose to fight it out, he was outnumbered and killed," Padilla said.

    Police earlier filed multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder charges against Fiesta and his uncle, retired policeman Florencio Peria who owned the weapon. The retired officer told police his nephew had stolen the gun from him, Padilla said.

    Eight people, including four children, were killed in the shooting rampage while six others were seriously hurt and undergoing treatment. The motive of the attack was not known.

    Police launched a manhunt after the killer armed with an automatic rifle shot up a cluster of four houses at a farming village outside Calamba before dawn on Monday, killing eight members of two families and some of their farm animals.

    "He had no place to go," Padilla said. Investigators recovered from the slain suspect the assault rifle allegedly used in the killings, the official added.