MANILA — A massive crowd of mostly barefoot Filipino Catholics joined an annual procession with a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ held Monday under tight security due to fears of possible retaliation for the killing of an Islamic extremist.

The US and British embassies asked their citizens to take precautions, and the police warned that local Muslim militants trying to align themselves with the Islamic State may try to attack the procession of the wooden Black Nazarene along Manila’s streets.

Metropolitan Manila police estimated 1.4 million people participated in the raucous procession of the lifesize statue carrying a cross.

National police chief Ronald Dela Rosa said authorities have not monitored any specific threat but warned that followers of the extremist leader killed last week may retaliate by attacking the procession.

Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, who led a small but violent group called Ansar Al Khilafah Philippines, died in a gunbattle with police Thursday in Sarangani province in the country’s south.

On Saturday, an unidentified foreigner linked to Maguid’s group and a Filipina were killed when they allegedly tried to lob a grenade at officers to evade arrest. Maguid’s group has been linked to a failed plot to bomb Rizal Park and the nearby US Embassy in Manila in November.

The lifesize statue, crowned with thorns and bearing a cross, is believed to have been brought from Mexico to Manila on a galleon in 1606 by Spanish missionaries. The ship that carried it caught fire, but the charred statue survived.

Associated Press